Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday morning, which we’re all quietly excited about for several key reasons.

Firstly, there’s a fair bit on the cards for today, with the ASX poised to carry a bit of momentum through from yesterday’s moderately happy result even if it did kinda peter out as the shadows lengthened, and the half-drunk post-lunch coffees quietly went cold on desks around the nation.

We’ve also got a pile of super content for you to dig into before the market opens, including Jess Cummins’ look at what the future holds for copper, now that it’s been bumped up onto the US critical minerals list – and what it could mean for our local copper hunters as well.

If a trip to China’s more your bag, Christian Edwards has done what he does best – unravelling the un-unravelable mystery that is Beijing, seeking an answer to the burning questions of how badly is China’s economy broken, and whether there are enough Band-Aids in the world to put on it to help stem the bleeding.

We’ve also got Bevis Yeo’s deep dive into why things are heating up in the Perth Basin again, and Nadine McGrath’s taken a Very Serious look into what kind of point-n-click shenanigans all you ETF enthusiasts got up to last month.

For now, though, here’s all the lovely numbers you need to get your morning off to a great start. Enjoy!

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,901.51 (-0.34%)

Silver: US$22.51 (-0.42%)

Nickel (3mth): US$19,770/t (-1.61%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,178/t (-1.37%)

Oil (WTI): US$81.15  (-1.65%)

Oil (Brent): US$84.91 (-1.51%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$104.80/t (+0.16%)

AUD/USD: 0.6455  (+0.00%)

Bitcoin: US$29,203 (-0.55%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Rob Badman rocked Stockhead’s Twitter-X-ShoutyAppThing World with a quick dig at the most indicted US President in history, the incomparable Donald J. Trump.

 

 

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
CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.0015 50% 4,922 $15,642,574
XTC Xantippe Res Ltd 0.0015 50% 98,501 $11,480,100
INP Incentiapay Ltd 0.007 40% 64,314 $6,325,318
VSR Voltaic Strategic 0.05 25% 27,485,367 $18,052,009
CCO The Calmer Co Int 0.005 25% 1,633,368 $3,268,477
DCX Discovex Res Ltd 0.0025 25% 33,333 $6,605,136
GTG Genetic Technologies 0.0025 25% 406,246 $23,083,316
LSA Lachlan Star Ltd 0.01 25% 1,335,064 $10,552,102
AVM Advance Metals Ltd 0.006 20% 1,318,000 $2,942,794
ELE Elmore Ltd 0.006 20% 4,648,750 $6,996,919
OPN Oppenneg 0.012 20% 453,174 $11,166,796
PRX Prodigy Gold NL 0.006 20% 351,000 $8,755,539
SI6 SI6 Metals Limited 0.006 20% 716,666 $9,969,297
LGM Legacy Minerals 0.155 19% 14,324 $6,997,571
LKE Lake Resources 0.25 19% 64,592,250 $298,713,388
HPC Thehydration 0.042 17% 710,221 $6,490,021
OEL Otto Energy Limited 0.021 17% 30,716,914 $86,310,176
AAU Antilles Gold Ltd 0.028 17% 1,276,773 $14,167,994
ATH Alterity Therap Ltd 0.007 17% 500,180 $14,639,386
EMP Emperor Energy Ltd 0.014 17% 1,532,608 $3,226,350
HOR Horseshoe Metals Ltd 0.014 17% 18,040 $7,721,744
1TT Thrive Tribe Tech 0.031 15% 542,210 $8,008,781
GUD G.U.D. Holdings 11.7 14% 2,014,539 $1,439,943,793
AVE Avecho Biotech Ltd 0.008 14% 744,610 $15,135,146
BEX Bikeexchange Ltd 0.008 14% 1,888,783 $8,324,051
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Yesterday’s Small Caps standouts were:

Voltaic Strategic Resources (ASX:VSR) which came storming out of nowhere to pile on 22.5% (or thereabouts) for the day, for no readily apparent reason.

The best theory I could come up with yesterday was connected to a weird after-hours spend on VSR’s neighbour, Delta Lithium (ASX:DLI) – after 60 million Delta shares, worth $56m, and representing roughly 11% of the company – traded at a hefty 23% premium on Monday night.

So either there’s something afoot that most of us don’t know about, or someone’s playing 4D Chess and snapping up Voltaic on a classic Predictive Nearology hunch. If I hear anything new on the topic today, I’ll definitely let you know.

Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) ended the day up 19% after the company revealed “successful testing that has proved the concept of extraction and injection to support the production of high purity battery grade lithium carbonate at the Kachi lithium brine project in Catamarca Province, Argentina”.

“The tests represent a significant milestone for the project, as they provide important data and higher confidence for our modelling, which is essential for the completion of our DFS for Phase 1,” Lake CEO David Dickson said, adding: “The results are indicative of high-yield, production-scale, extraction wells in the core resource area.”

And Otto Energy (ASX:OEL) was up 16.7% on no hugely significant news, other than the company receiving a US$5.8 million chunk of a previously announced  insurance payout.

The insurance claim relates to damage that occurred during the recompletion of the Green Canyon 21 (GC 21) “Bulleit” well in September 2022, and while the process of the insurance claim review is ongoing, there’s no clear indication of when it might be completed, and how much (if any) of the US$8.7 million claim will eventually be settled.

 

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
APC Aust Potash Ltd 0.004 -47% 11,320,126 $7,790,093
MAY Melbana Energy Ltd 0.07 -33% 100,554,273 $353,871,431
KEY KEY Petroleum 0.001 -33% 4,000 $2,951,892
MCT Metalicity Limited 0.0015 -25% 1,687,385 $7,472,172
BPP Babylon Pump & Power 0.004 -20% 532,000 $12,288,857
PEC Perpetual Res Ltd 0.023 -18% 4,310,470 $15,273,551
BXN Bioxyne Ltd 0.015 -17% 261,626 $34,229,617
MXR Maximus Resources 0.03 -17% 1,586,634 $11,529,208
MRQ Mrg Metals Limited 0.0025 -17% 17,000,000 $6,557,756
TTT Titomic Limited 0.021 -16% 3,314,972 $21,638,214
MRL Mayur Resources Ltd 0.24 -16% 547,864 $93,312,658
BNO Bionomics Limited 0.011 -15% 225,861 $19,093,561
EXL Elixinol Wellness 0.012 -14% 852,351 $6,397,879
LRL Labyrinth Resources 0.006 -14% 483,478 $8,312,806
BMR Ballymore Resources 0.13 -13% 38,626 $14,447,618
CTP Central Petroleum 0.054 -13% 149,040 $45,223,127
AD1 AD1 Holdings Limited 0.007 -13% 1,196,577 $6,580,551
CHK Cohiba Min Ltd 0.0035 -13% 10,000 $8,852,977
MTB Mount Burgess Mining 0.0035 -13% 12,607,112 $4,062,587
RIE Riedel Resources Ltd 0.007 -13% 1,649,253 $16,475,256
TAS Tasman Resources Ltd 0.007 -13% 610,000 $5,701,354
FRB Firebird Metals 0.105 -13% 57,524 $8,769,000
MIO Macarthur Minerals 0.185 -12% 106,300 $34,871,232
MEM Memphasys Ltd 0.015 -12% 1,732,705 $16,311,846
CUS Coppersearchlimited 0.24 -11% 48,619 $14,254,622
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TRADING HALTS

Fonterra (ASX:FSF) – Implementation of pro rata return of capital to shareholders by way of a Court-approved scheme of arrangement.

FINEOS (ASX:FCL) – Capital raising.

Bellavista Resources (ASX:BVR) – Capital raising.

Environmental Clean Technologies (ASX:ECT) – A capital raising and a board restructure, ect ect.

Pointerra (ASX:3DP) – Capital raising.

Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) – Announcement regarding a previously announced capital raising.

Kinetiko Energy (ASX:KKO) – Project update announcement.

Lunnon Metals (ASX:LM8) – Capital raising.

 

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