Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens

Top o’ the morning to you all, and welcome to the middle of the week, which is traditionally a time for calling in sick when you’re not actually crook, because you fancy a day off but don’t want it to look like you’re gunning for a cheeky, undeserved long weekend.

Not that I would advocate ripping off the company you work for because it’s, like, the final day of Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep and there’s an exotic catalyst mission that you have to complete or you’ll never, ever get the chance to do it again – but it’s a super-hard solo mission so it’s likely to take, like, 5-6 hours to complete… because that would be irresponsible.

On a completely unrelated matter, I might not be in later today because of… reasons.

For those of you who have a conscience, there’s a bunch of great content to wade through this morning before the bell rings, including Josh Chiat’s weekly deep dive into the Exciting World of Commodities.

Eddy Sunarto’s got some expert advice on the ASX stocks that could be winners as the AUD loses.

Nadine McGrath’s searching for the next Neuren, and Rob “I’m Badnam” Badman sits down with the MD of Red Metal (ASX:RDM) to find out what it is that makes the company’s REE find (actually and literally) unique.

And, as always, to get your motor running, you’ll find all the digits and data your brain has been craving since late last night, bewlow, for which you are welcome.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,896.01 (+0.11%)

Silver: US$23.40 (+0.22%)

Nickel (3mth): US$20,600/t (+2.39%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,361/t (+1.05%)

Oil (WTI): US$79.55 (-0.71%)

Oil (Brent): US$83.77 (-0.82%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$106.77/t (+0.27%)

AUD/USD: 0.6422 (-0.2%)

Bitcoin: US$25,673 (-1.97%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

It seems everyone’s yearning for earnings this week, which is lucky because there’s been a tonne of ‘em…

Today’s ASX #Earnings Wrap features:

💲 Redbubble (#ASX: $RBL)
💲 Kogan ($KGN) https://t.co/bfohheMcWG

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) August 22, 2023

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
DXN	DXN Limited	0.002	100%	1,545,923	$1,721,315
CLE	Cyclone Metals	0.0015	50%	101,648	$10,264,505
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.0015	50%	1,208,333	$6,147,446
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.002	33%	54,658,225	$5,604,129
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.004	33%	9,881,705	$11,485,004
KKO	Kinetiko Energy Ltd	0.12	32%	4,151,847	$71,031,281
NMR	Native Mineral Res	0.055	31%	2,688,377	$6,172,524
HTG	Harvest Tech Grp Ltd	0.037	28%	433,251	$19,968,709
ALU	Altium Limited	46.34	26%	2,092,668	$4,855,145,011
CTO	Citigold Corp Ltd	0.005	25%	359,814	$11,494,636
ENT	Enterprise Metals	0.005	25%	20,000	$3,197,884
IBG	Ironbark Zinc Ltd	0.01	25%	76,326	$11,734,274
ICN	Icon Energy Limited	0.005	25%	116,458	$3,072,055
MXC	Mgc Pharmaceuticals	0.0025	25%	69,469	$7,784,719
SRY	Story-I Limited	0.005	25%	200,000	$1,505,619
TYM	Tymlez Group	0.005	25%	4,998,752	$4,952,781
KRR	King River Resources	0.011	22%	599,897	$13,981,725
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.003	20%	871,675	$5,464,797
WYX	Western Yilgarn NL	0.22	19%	1,089,801	$9,186,638
LAM	Laramide Res Ltd	0.58	18%	17,470	$622,864
SRK	Strike Resources	0.06	18%	195,180	$14,471,250
RDM	Red Metal Limited	0.1	18%	3,071,806	$20,875,298
BSN	Basinenergylimited	0.105	17%	145,122	$5,402,700
AYT	Austin Metals Ltd	0.007	17%	147,248	$6,095,248
CXU	Cauldron Energy Ltd	0.007	17%	212,898	$5,709,412

Yesterday’s Small Caps standouts were:

Punchy explorer Western Yilgarn (ASX:WYX) was up near almost 25% after identifying ‘multiple targets’ for drilling at its Bulga mining project in WA.

WYX is on the go for a gaggle of minerals, including nickel, copper, gold and, yep, some lithium, too.

Stockhead’s assistant minister for resources, Robert Badman says the Bulga project is situated in what appears to be a potentially advantageous position, near two Tier 1, world-class nickel projects operated by BHP (ASX:BHP) – the Leinster and Mt Keith operations – as well as several 2Moz+ gold operations including the renowned Agnew, Lawlers and Bellevue mining projects.

It’s is also about 60km north of Delta Lithium’s (ASX:DLI) Mt Ida Lithium Project and roughly 90km south of Liontown Resources’ (ASX:LTR) huge Kathleen Valley Lithium Project. A good spot to be in.

Red Metal (ASX:RDM) just kept rising early on Tuesday, with excitement still-fresh regarding the company’s potential world-first rare earths discovery at its Sybella project in northwest Queensland.

The discovery follows assay results from proof-of-concept drilling regarding 19 percussion holes (for 2,280m) across a large tranche of granite, which suggest high-quality grades inside some substantial width.

RDM describes the find as full of the EV-worthy REEs like neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) as well as yttrium (Y) and dysprosium (Dy), and best of all, MD Rob Rutherford says its all near-surface REO mineralisation.

Rutherford told Stockhead on Monday the find shows scope for “vast tonnages of weak-acid soluble rare-earth oxide (REO) mineralisation hosted in low-acid consuming granite rock”.

Also on the up in the mining space was Nimy Resources (ASX:NIM) which bagged itself $2.5 million from a major, cornerstone investment from New York-based Lind Partners, in order to get cracking on its nickel and lithium drilling programs at the Mons project, northeast of Perth, WA.

NIM surged in June after the company intersected lithium-rich pegmatite rocks in eight holes, over 1.3km of strike, at the South Lake and Royale prospects within the Mons project.

The investment is a staged placement over a maximum 24-month period, with the price fixed at $0.208 cents in the first four months then at either the fixed price or a calculated VWAP subscription price.

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
CCE	Carnegie Cln Energy	0.001	-50%	3,172,872	$31,285,147
QPM	Queensland Pacific	0.066	-29%	26,930,341	$162,410,357
BUY	Bounty Oil & Gas NL	0.006	-25%	1,434,286	$10,964,008
CHK	Cohiba Min Ltd	0.003	-25%	750,000	$8,852,977
MSG	Mcs Services Limited	0.021	-25%	600,000	$5,555,702
OSM	Osmondresources	0.105	-19%	66,667	$6,096,485
DTL	Data#3 Limited	6.14	-18%	2,833,450	$1,161,039,872
LVT	Livetiles Limited	0.009	-18%	2,780,924	$12,948,217
PIL	Peppermint Inv Ltd	0.009	-18%	19,523,740	$22,416,425
KNG	Kingsland Minerals	0.19	-17%	807,369	$10,285,554
SOV	Sovereign Cloud Hldg	0.1	-17%	30,682	$40,728,081
BNO	Bionomics Limited	0.01	-17%	2,520,197	$17,624,825
FAU	First Au Ltd	0.0025	-17%	250,000	$4,355,980
PNX	PNX Metals Limited	0.0025	-17%	4,051,035	$16,141,874
KCC	Kincora Copper	0.036	-16%	692,746	$6,922,409
DCL	Domacom Limited	0.021	-16%	34,347	$10,887,544
MKL	Mighty Kingdom Ltd	0.021	-16%	371,166	$8,155,490
PHL	Propell Holdings Ltd	0.021	-16%	25,000	$3,008,888
RCL	Readcloud	0.059	-16%	20,516	$8,528,610
GLL	Galilee Energy Ltd	0.07	-16%	977,389	$28,098,612
GMN	Gold Mountain Ltd	0.0085	-15%	40,829,052	$22,690,786
CI1	Credit Intelligence	0.15	-14%	25,426	$14,612,353
DY6	Dy6Metalsltd	0.15	-14%	131,491	$6,748,436
KNM	Kneomedia Limited	0.003	-14%	7,961	$5,266,749
XST	Xstate Resources	0.012	-14%	73,123	$4,501,268