Sponsored by Saxo

 

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 08 August, 2024 – an important date in the history of moral panics.

On this day in 1963, a group of relatively unknown musicians calling themselves The Kingsmen released a recording of a song called Louie Louie – itself a cover of a song written and recorded in the 1950s by Richard Berry.

The Kingsmen’s version of the song was a minor hit, and remarkable for the fact that the lyrics sung by Kingsmen frontman Jack Ely were so garbled on the recording that understanding the words was basically impossible.

 

 

But that didn’t stop a pair of teenagers from a town called Frankfort, Indiana, from writing a letter to their state governor, asking for the song to be banned because – they claimed – it had some naughty words in it.

What happened next is one of the most ludicrous chapters in American history, which ended with the FBI investigating for more than two years in an attempt to prove that the song’s lyrics were obscene.

They were not – aside from a rumoured (but never confirmed) expletive shouted by the drummer about a minute into the recording of the song because he’d made a mistake.

Luckily for you, you won’t have to get caught on tape shouting barely audible swear words in order to get your hands on good pre-market info today.

That’s because – as always – we’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$2,395.21  (+0.02%)

Silver: US$27.06(-0.15%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,086/t (+2.73%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,791/t (+0.88%)

Zinc: US$2,541/t (+0.77%)

Oil (WTI): US$73.39 (+0.18%)

Oil (Brent): US$76.73 (+0.20%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$102.86/t (-1.28%)

AUD/USD: 0.6551 (+0.54%)

Bitcoin: US$$57,489  (+4.644%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Don’t miss our latest investor guide, as health and biotech guru Tim Boreham and the Stockhead team bring you the latest from the bleeding edge of ASX investment opportunities.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Yesterday’s small cap winners included:

LBT Innovation (ASX:LBT) was one of the best performers today.  LBT says AstraZeneca purchased 5 APAS Independence instruments with the total contract valued between USD 2.2 million and 2.7 million, depending on the level of maintenance and support services chosen. In addition to the equipment, AstraZeneca will receive annual maintenance and support for the next seven years. There is also potential for additional orders from AstraZeneca in the future.  APAS Independence is an advanced microbiology automation system designed to streamline the process of analysing culture plates used in laboratories.

Arrow Minerals (ASX:AMD) gained on Wednesday after releasing an exploration target estimate for its Niagara Bauxite Project, which the company says has come in at approximately 170 – 340Mt at a grade range of approximately 40-46% Al2O3, and 1-4% SiO2, which the company has reminded investors is a “conceptual” figure, not an official mineral resource estimate.

Centaurus Metals (ASX:CTM) was gaining nicely after delivering a presentation at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie, which no doubt focussed heavily on its recent news of a major increase in its Mineral Resource Estimate for the Jaguar Nickel Project in Brazil, which puts the project on a whopping 138.2Mt @ 0.87% Ni for 1.20 million tonnes of contained nickel, which Centaurus says “cements its place as a Tier-1 project”.

Manhattan Corp (ASX:MHC) was up early after revealing that the entitlement offer announced by the company on Tuesday, 30 July 2024 is now open. The company is looking to raise up to $1.5 million, through a 1 for 2 non-renounceable pro-rata entitlement offer of 1,468,490,084 new Shares on a pre-Consolidation basis, at an issue price of $0.001 per New Share.

HighCom (ASX:HCL) was back in the winner’s circle on Wednesday, after providing fresh guidance for its FY24 results, revealing that revenue has come in at the lower end ($46 million) of the estimate given to the market in May. The company says that a delay in finalising a recent contract has pushed that revenue out to FY25, and that the company has seen an improvement in cash holdings from $1.6 million to $6.2 million, with new orders of ballistic products for US domestic and international customers valued at $13.7 million to be delivered soon.

First lithium carbonate from Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL)’s pilot plant at its Prairie project in Canada has been produced using direct lithium extraction (DLE) tech and the first commercial production well at Pad #1 has been drilled. The milestones are sending the lithium-brine developer well on its way to becoming a fully-fledged producer, especially because Pad #1 has recveived a conditional $21.6m investment incentive by the Saskatchewan government. Full production is set to begin at the 6.3Mt LCE Prairie next year, pumping out battery-grade lithium carbonate. For now, the pilot plant material is being put up in the shop window for potential project partners to test.

Iceni Gold (ASX:ICL) was up on no news.  The stock has been relatively quiet since a massive 300% gain on the back of its Christmas Gift gold discovery at 14 Mile Well in May.  The junior exposed multiple “spectacular” gold-bearing quartz veins across a 20km-long strike length and produced a 9.5oz gold doré bar from a sample trench that had ridiculous grades in rock chips of up to 18,207g/t.  A six-hole diamond drill program was completed in July to evaluate the gold-laden structure, with assays still pending.

Helix Resources (ASX:HLX) was also up on no news.  But something’s a-rumblin’ around gold minnow HLX, which, last heard, has found prospective “Tritton-style copper-gold” at the Collerina copper trend, part of its Eastern Group Tenements near Nyngan in NSW.It’s got a whopping chunk of land that covers 1570km2 directly south and along strike of Aeris Resources’ (ASX:AIS) Tritton processing facility and several operating copper-gold mines.

Some 600 augur sample assays confirmed both copper and gold mineralisation and the explorer said it was continuing infill and extension augur sampling, AC drilling and detailed assessment of the anomaly to delineate future targets.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

TRADING HALTS 

Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU) – pending an analysis of data and an announcement in relation to the top line results of its Phase 2 clinical trial of NNZ-2591 in Angelman syndrome.

Finder Energy Holdings (ASX:FDR) – pending announcements in relation to a material acquisition and a rights entitlement offer to shareholders.

ActivePort Group (ASX:ATV) – pending an announcement regarding a proposed capital raising.

Featured Companies

You might be interested in