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

I don’t want to alarm anyone, but today is Thursday. It’s also the last day of August, which is – as tradition insists – the official start of “Where The Hell Has This Year Gone?” season.

I know that you know what I’m talking about… the intensely irritating need for people to express that it “feels like only yesterday” that we were expressing gratitude that 2022 is finally over, or exclaim that “we never really had a decent winter!”, or “It’ll be next year already before you know it!”

But as infuriating as that all is, it’s still important to bear in mind that “Where The Hell Has This Year Gone?” is still just a short-lived season, one that rolls around every year and something you should be used to by now.

It’s the same as the two months from 01 January, otherwise known as “I’m Still Writing Last Year’s Date”, which in turn gives way to “They’ve Already Got Hot Cross Buns on the Shelves”, followed by three months of “I Wish It Was Still Summer”, which generally precedes “I’m Not Going Skiing This Year – It Is Too Expensive”.

That rolls into the current season, which ends sometime around mid-November, when the season turns to “Only X More Sleeps to Christmas” for everyone, except meth addicts, for whom the “X” has a fixed value of 4.

And speaking of “value” (he writes, because he’s super-good at segues) there’s plenty of value ahead for you today on Stockhead, including Josh Chiat’s deeper dive into whether Chalice Mining deserved that -25% bollocking it got yesterday.

Nadine McGrath’s had a look at ASX stocks in the business of making big important stuff out of metal powder, and – excite! – Carl Capolingua has come in from the cold to bring us his incredible Candlesticks again!

As always, there’s data to digest, so here it is, all granular – just the way you like it.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,943.95 (+0.35%)

Silver: US$24.62 (-0.45%)

Nickel (3mth): US$20,635/t (-0.23%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,473/t (+0.29%)

Oil (WTI): US$81.64  (+0.6%)

Oil (Brent): US$85.75 (+0.3%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$108.99/t (+0.3%)

AUD/USD: 0.6479  (+0.6%)

Bitcoin: US$27,269 (-1.2%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

The SEC’s resident Man in a Frog Suit (or possibly Frog in a Man Suit) Gary Gensler getting pantsed is always good for a chuckle or two – which a lot of you indulged in yesterday, by the looks of things:

Overnight, the US Court paved the way for the first Spot #Bitcoin #ETF, after #Grayscale won its lawsuit against the #SEC. This. *Could*. Be. Huge. https://t.co/lnSK75Qs0R

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) August 30, 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:

Yesterday’s Small Caps standouts were:

Up 50% on no news was the absolute wisp of a small cap oil explorer Key Petroleum (ASX:KEY).

While waiting on some licence renewals to break stuff open for oil, we last heard from KEY in June when a quarterly activities update said that the licences were ‘imminently pending,’ and until then:

• Key continues to work towards drilling the leads / prospects in the Cooper Eromanga Basin exploration portfolio.
• Key will also drill as soon as it can practically do so in order to make discoveries and to be in a position to appraise and develop any discoveries
• Key continues to assess farm-in investments into the Cooper Eromanga Basin exploration portfolio
• Further, Key continues to assess the addition of new quality assets into the portfolio

Just worth noting, maybe they’re onto something. Up half to 0.0015 cents.

RocketDNA (ASX:RKT), also jumped circa 50% in morning business on news that the company won Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority approval for the use of its “drone-in-a-box” product.

The approvals cover two autonomous drone systems (DJI Dock System and Hextronics Global Drone Station), which includes Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and Remote Operations, making RKT the first company in Australia to receive approval for DJI’s new to market Dock System.

Triton Minerals (ASX:TON) was enjoying a day in the sun, climbing nearly 23% after revealing that it has been granted a 25-year Mining Concession for the Cobra Plains graphite deposit in Mozambique.

That gives Triton access to an existing, globally significant graphite JORC Compliant Inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 103 Million Tonnes (Mt) at an average grade of 5.2% TGC, containing 5.7Mt of graphitic carbon, expanding the company’s portfolio to world class graphite projects with a diversified mix of flake sizes.

Motorcycle Holdings (ASX:MTO), was up strongly after dropping its earnings report after-hours last night.

MTO says that it’s seen a 25% jump in revenue to $580 million, built gross profit by 17% to $154.6 million and, while its NPAT has stayed steady on $23 million, the company has seen its Net Assets climb 27% to $197.6 million.

The MTO board went in for a final shareholder payout of 12 cents per share (20 cents for the full year), in line with 20 cents per share in the prior year.

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:

TRADING HALTS

Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO) –  Pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raise.

Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE) – Pending a material release regarding exploration results at the company’s Mangaroon Ni-Cu-PGE Project.

NRW Holdings (ASX:NWH) – NRW is seeking the trading halt pending an announcement regarding settlement of the Primero – Wartsila litigation.

29Metals (ASX:29M) – Pending a potential announcement in connection with a proposed equity capital raising comprising an accelerated non-renounceable pro rata entitlement offer.