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Good morning everyone, and welcome to 22 July, 2024 – an important date in the history of flying in a really, really big circle.

That’s because it was on this day in 1933 that a fella called Wiley Post completed the first-ever solo flight around the world.

Arguably years ahead of his time, Post is considered “the aviator’s aviator”, because he was a true pioneer who experimented with super-high altitude flight, developed an early version of the pressure suit required to fly at those sorts of altitudes without freezing to death or turning a very Smurfy shade of blue while dying of hypoxia.

Post is also credited with discovering the jet stream – narrow, fast moving air currents that Post believed were responsible for making his plane go superfast. All this, remarkably, was done at a time when most people were still very much of the opinion that if God had intended for humans to fly, he wouldn’t have made it so easy for our luggage to go missing.

At the time of his around-the-world flight, Post was considered by many to be the best aviator in the world. However, his claim to that title came to an abrupt end when he proved it to be categorically false, by dying in a plane crash in 1935.

50 years to the day of his successful circumnavigation of the globe, wealthy Australian busybody Dick Smith became the first human to fly around the world solo in a helicopter, possibly because no one wanted to go with him.

Luckily for you, you won’t have to sit in a cramped helicopter cockpit with Dick Smith for any length of time in order to get your hands on the info you need this morning, because – as always – I’ve worked super-hard to gather together lots of fiddly little things below, so you don’t need to go ferreting all over the internet for your ASX info this morning.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,4702.80/oz (-2.18%)

Silver: US$29.45 /oz (-2.71%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,274/t (-0.91%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,298/t (=0.94%)

Zinc: US$2,780/t (-1.03%)

Oil (WTI): US$78.60/bbl (-3.32%)

Oil (Brent): US$82.58/bbl (-2.97%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$108.45/t (-0.26%)

AUD/USD: 0.6683 (-0.54%)

Bitcoin: US$67,004.40 (-0.42%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

With China on the nose again in the US, is Australia back in the hot seat to supply the western world’s graphite needs?

 

 

FRIDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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Friday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Cleanspace (ASX:CSX) cranked out a big win and copped a speeding ticket on Friday, all off the back of a 3-day-old sales and revenue update. The company has told the ASX that might be the explanation for the movement.

Flynn Gold (ASX:FG1) was an early leader on Friday morning after delivering news of a new high-grade gold discovery in Northeastern Tasmania, at the company’s Golden Ridge project. Drilling has revealed a gold vein zone in trenching 250m north of the Trafalgar mine, with 17 out of 36 grab rock chip samples assayed at over 10g/t Au, including 99.4g/t Au, 76.6g/t Au and 67.1g/t Au.

Metalicity (ASX:MCT) was up on news that it’s appointed Argonaut PCF to seek indicative offers for its Admiral Bay Zinc Project, located in the Canning Basin, Kimberley Region of Western Australia, which the company says “hosts one of the largest zinc resources in the world, based on existing JORC 2012 compliant mineral resource (170mt at 7.5% Zn eq)”.

Mayfield Group Holdings (ASX:MYG) climbed quickly at the opening bell on news of some boardroom largesse for shareholders. The company has declared a fully franked final dividend of  $0.02 per share for the fiscal year ending on 30 June 2024, which is double the divvy the company paid out this time last year.

And Riversgold (ASX:RGL) dropped an investor presentation this morning that has done something fitting the company name,  the  price moving more than 7.6%, which isn’t terrible considering the rest of the market’s mood through the last session.

 

FRIDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS 

Sierra Rutile (ASX:SRX) – pending the release of an announcement regarding the status of the competing takeover offers for Sierra Rutile.

Calix (ASX:CXL) – pending an announcement regarding the award of a material funding grant by the federal government.