Good morning everyone, and welcome to 9 February, 2024 – a big day in history for music fans, as it was on this day in 1961 that The Beatles played their first-ever show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, the first of more than 300 sets they would perform there over the next two years, before they became kind of a big deal and the whole world changed forever.
The story of The Beatles has long fascinated an adoring public, and the band’s split is widely regarded as one of the reasons that they remain as enduringly popular as ever, to this day.
The final time the Fab Four were in the same room was in August, 1969, for a photoshoot – and the writing was reportedly on the wall even then.
Throughout the 1970s, the band was repeatedly offered untold millions of dollars to get back together to make more music, but – thankfully – they resisted the urge to cash in by steadfastly hating each other.
The possibility of a late reunion, which would absolutely have been a terrible idea, was removed entirely when “deranged fan” Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back outside his New York home – but even that tragic event wasn’t enough to stop the inevitable last-minute cash-in from the band’s “other” frontman, Paul McCartney.
Last year, McCartney used some old recordings of Lennon to make a whole new Beatles song, along with a music video, which – I’m sure you’ll agree – strongly suggests that Chapman actually did us all an extremely back-handed favour.
Because this is objectively terrible:
And on that note, it’s time to do some actual work. To help get you up to speed this morning, we’ve got Christian Edwards and his always-calm ad moderate views on how badly China’s thrashing the global economy, and the almighty Bevis Yeo has taken a look at how Europe’s take-up of renewables is leaving our local efforts looking rather lame.
Plus, as always, down below you’ll find a quick wrap of how the past 24 hours or so panned out, just in case you took your eye off the ball while things were happening all around you.
COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES
Gold: US$2,034.19 (0.00%)
Silver: US$22.58 (+1.78%)
Nickel (3mth): US$16,012/t (+0.53%)
Copper (3mth): US$8,312/t (-1.07%)
Oil (WTI): US$76.57 (+3.54%)
Oil (Brent): US$81.75 (+3.21%)
Iron 62pc Fe: US$129.07/t (+1.61%)
AUD/USD: 0.6492 (-0.44%)
Bitcoin: US$45,350 (+2.70%)
WHAT GOT YOU TALKING
Nadine McGrath’s solid dig into the ASX companies working to help ease the Great Aussie Cost-of-Living Crisis™ certainly caught some attention yesterday. Here it is, in case you missed it.
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:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | MARKET CAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DXNDA | DXN Limited | 0.025 | 67% | 55,161 | $2,773,340 |
| GRE | Greentechmetals | 0.34 | 62% | 752,617 | $17,656,795 |
| QXR | Qx Resources Limited | 0.027 | 50% | 19,445,735 | $19,981,401 |
| RMX | Red Mount Min Ltd | 0.003 | 50% | 435,025 | $5,347,152 |
| AXN | Alliance Nickel Ltd | 0.041 | 37% | 9,068,088 | $21,775,188 |
| EM2R | Eagle Mountain - Rights 23-Feb-24 | 0.004 | 33% | 42,502 | $228,725 |
| PNX | PNX Metals Limited | 0.006 | 33% | 55,865,242 | $24,212,811 |
| EFE | Eastern Resources | 0.009 | 29% | 6,425,972 | $8,693,625 |
| MM1 | Midasmineralsltd | 0.11 | 28% | 399,173 | $7,460,263 |
| AUN | Aurumin | 0.042 | 27% | 1,227,367 | $11,828,622 |
| SGA | Sarytogan | 0.21 | 27% | 890,351 | $12,696,735 |
| MCT | Metalicity Limited | 0.0025 | 25% | 1,288,500 | $8,970,108 |
| PUR | Pursuit Minerals | 0.005 | 25% | 4,238,143 | $11,775,886 |
| RLC | Reedy Lagoon Corp. | 0.005 | 25% | 1,020,260 | $2,478,163 |
| TMX | Terrain Minerals | 0.005 | 25% | 414,718 | $5,726,683 |
| CYP | Cynata Therapeutics | 0.18 | 24% | 791,096 | $26,046,609 |
| ARN | Aldoro Resources | 0.115 | 24% | 375,586 | $12,520,008 |
| WEC | White Energy Company | 0.049 | 23% | 129,227 | $4,529,413 |
| WC1 | Westcobarmetals | 0.052 | 21% | 299,992 | $5,194,414 |
| TKM | Trek Metals Ltd | 0.036 | 20% | 673,832 | $15,392,306 |
| 3DA | Amaero International | 0.3 | 20% | 1,177,513 | $119,836,598 |
| SYR | Syrah Resources | 0.54 | 20% | 10,898,694 | $304,153,979 |
| BLZ | Blaze Minerals Ltd | 0.006 | 20% | 201,046 | $3,142,791 |
| GCM | Green Critical Min | 0.006 | 20% | 599,989 | $5,682,925 |
| GTR | Gti Energy Ltd | 0.012 | 20% | 5,682,634 | $20,499,471 |
Alliance Nickel (ASX:AXN) led the charge, on news that it’s signed a non-binding term sheet with Samsung – yes, that Samsung – for the future offtake of battery grade nickel and cobalt sulphate products from the NiWest Nickel-Cobalt Project in Western Australia.
Sarytogan Graphite (ASX:SGA) made headway after announcing that the first batch of coincell batteries has been produced using the company’s Uncoated Spherical Purified Graphite, which the company says have been outperforming many synthetic graphite anodes that are currently used in electric vehicles.
Aldoro Resources (ASX:ARN) rose more than 34% before lunch, after telling the market it had traced intermittent intrusive dyke bearing pyrochlore (a niobium containing mineral) over 200m and at widths of up to 1m, out along the southwest margin of the Kameelburg carbonatite.
Junior goldie Kula Gold (ASX:KGD) climbed on news that it had pinned down two new gold prospects at the Marvel Loch project near Southern Cross, one of WA’s better gold fields – namely, the new Stingray gold and lithium prospect and the Boomerang gold prospect, the latter identified in drilling for kaolin three years ago in a hit of 1m at 2.6g/t from 54m.
Lanthanein Resources (ASX:LNR) moved higher early after saying that an extensive soil sampling programme across its entire 77km2 granted tenement on the Forrestania Greenstone Belt has kicked off, directly adjacent to Covalent Lithium’s (SQM & Wesfarmers) Earl Grey Mine, 189Mt @1.53% Li2O.
And Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX:CHM) made early progress after it announced that the first patient in the ADVENT-AML Phase 1B clinical trial in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) has received treatment with CHM 0201 in combination with Azacitidine and Venetoclax.
There was a sudden middle-of-the-day burst of interest in Cynata Therapeutics (ASX:CYP), despite no announcements on the list, nor any headline news.
QX Resources (ASX:QXR) enjoyed a sizeable jump mid-day as well, after it reported that a second diamond hole has intersected multiple brine reservoirs at its 102km2 Liberty project. The results revealed that a single 443.5m drilling in the hole intersected five brine aquifers at 90m, 130m, 210m, 245m and 295m that have widths varying from just a few metres to 10m.
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:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | MARKET CAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAF | Discovery Alaska Ltd | 0.019 | -30% | 157,135 | $6,324,337 |
| BMG | BMG Resources Ltd | 0.012 | -29% | 12,010,518 | $10,774,552 |
| AMT | Allegra Medical | 0.022 | -27% | 4,228 | $3,588,331 |
| MRD | Mount Ridley Mines | 0.0015 | -25% | 500,000 | $15,569,766 |
| HT8 | Harris Technology Gl | 0.014 | -22% | 61,588 | $5,384,439 |
| ADG | Adelong Gold Limited | 0.004 | -20% | 12,500 | $3,498,278 |
| ROG | Red Sky Energy. | 0.004 | -20% | 3,535,222 | $26,511,136 |
| SCL | Schrole Group Ltd | 0.15 | -19% | 7,294 | $6,651,684 |
| CAG | Caperangeltd | 0.13 | -19% | 7,270 | $15,185,328 |
| MPA | Mad Paws | 0.098 | -18% | 540,154 | $43,273,187 |
| XF1 | Xref Limited | 0.115 | -18% | 340,728 | $26,064,680 |
| WNR | Wingara Ag Ltd | 0.019 | -17% | 110,311 | $4,037,478 |
| M24 | Mamba Exploration | 0.044 | -17% | 1,023,677 | $3,396,361 |
| IMR | Imricor Med Sys | 0.455 | -17% | 205,482 | $92,060,383 |
| NYR | Nyrada Inc. | 0.021 | -16% | 202,250 | $3,900,218 |
| AJX | Alexium Int Group | 0.011 | -15% | 76,065 | $8,595,740 |
| SCT | Scout Security Ltd | 0.011 | -15% | 412,604 | $3,021,556 |
| SHN | Sunshine Metals Ltd | 0.011 | -15% | 4,398,504 | $15,912,110 |
| ECG | Ecargo Hldg | 0.04 | -15% | 123 | $28,916,750 |
| NKL | Nickelxltd | 0.041 | -15% | 115,354 | $4,215,128 |
| SCN | Scorpion Minerals | 0.018 | -14% | 584,677 | $8,598,580 |
| BCT | Bluechiip Limited | 0.006 | -14% | 1,961,766 | $5,567,617 |
| IS3 | I Synergy Group Ltd | 0.006 | -14% | 485,521 | $2,128,563 |
| LRL | Labyrinth Resources | 0.006 | -14% | 1,036,002 | $8,312,806 |
| SNS | Sensen Networks Ltd | 0.025 | -14% | 132,933 | $22,395,876 |
TRADING HALTS
BluGlass (ASX:BLG) – pending the release of an announcement in relation to a capital raising to fund ongoing working capital requirements.
The Calmer Co International (ASX:CCO) – pending an announcement to the market in connection with a capital raise.
DomaCom (ASX:DCL) – pending the release of an announcement to market in relation to the funding referred to in the ASX Announcements on 31 January 2024 and 5 February 2024.
Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL) – pending the release of an announcement regarding an update on drilling.
NeuRizer (ASX:NRZ) – pending release to the market regarding the appointment of a new director.
Credit Intelligence (ASX:CI1) – pending an announcement in relation to receipt of a letter from the Hong Kong Official Receiver’s Office.