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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Tuesday 17 October – an important date on the calendar for lovers of Baroque music, as it marks the day when Johann Sebastian Bach did a perfectly normal thing and married his cousin Maria at Dornheim.

Soon after, they began having children – seven of them, all told – before Maria burst at the seams and died. Bach went on to re-marry, as his urge to make more and more children only grew in its ferocity.

He tied the knot with Anna Magdalena Wilcken, the daughter of a trumpet player, who promptly got pregnant in 1722, and pretty much stayed that way for the next 20 years, churning out kids until 1742.

Most of the eventual 20 didn’t make it, although one of them defied every odd known to man and lived for a very long time – a young chap called Sebastian, who was the lead singer of hair metal band Skid Row for decades, before retiring to become “an ancient witch”.

The real Bach, meanwhile, continued to increase in fame for his excellent compositions, which went swimmingly until he decided to get eye surgery from a “travelling British surgeon”, which left him totally blind and in horrendous pain for four months.

Bach eventually found a cure for the horrors of the botched eye surgery by dying, leaving behind about half of the children he sired, and two wives – one deceased, the other deflated.

It’s a stark reminder that all care should be taken by anyone stepping ‘outside their lane’, in life and in investing.

That’s why the Stockhead team has been super-busy putting together the best information we could find, so you can be as up to date as possible before you make your moves today.

Eddy Sunarto’s been hitting the phones to get the latest in Broker Upgrades for you to digest, and Cam Drummond’s been sampling as much ionic clays as he can get his grubby little hands on.

And, just like every day except for the ones I sleep in, here’s all the fiddly data and digits to get you up to speed this morning as well.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,919.76 (-0.62%)

Silver: US$22.58 (-0.52%)

Nickel (3mth): US$18,546/t (-0.97%)

Copper (3mth): US$7,949/t (-0.53%)

Oil (WTI): US$87.06 (-0.72%)

Oil (Brent): US$90.05 (-0.90%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$119.25/t (+0.57%)

AUD/USD: 0.6335 (+0.65%)

Bitcoin: US$28,460 (+4.5%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Albemarle abandoning its bid to buy Liontown was some top-shelf goss yesterday, and in case you missed it, here’s the link to Josh Chiat’s tremendous story on the topic:

Liontown’s $6.6bn sale to Albemarle is kaput after Gina Rinehart’s blocking stake prompted the US giant to walk away. | #mining #exploration #ASX https://t.co/zW65ndl85O

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) October 16, 2023

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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Yesterday’s Small Caps highlights were:

Dacian Gold (ASX:DCN), soared after the board told investors to take up the offer from Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD) for the latter to acquire all the bits of Dacian it doesn’t already own.

It’s a generous offer – 0.1685 Genesis Shares for every one (1) Dacian share, improving to 0.1935 Genesis Shares for every one (1) Dacian share you hold if, during or at the end of the offer period, Genesis acquires a relevant interest in at least 95.1% of Dacian shares on issue.

That values Dacian at around $256 million, at an individual share price of $0.235 to start with, which – should the improved offer come into play – climbs to $328 million at $0.27 per share.

That’s a premium of 116% to Dacian’s closing share price of $0.125 on 13 October, and 127% to Dacian’s 20-day VWAP of $0.119 per share.

Elsewhere, Black Mountain Energy (ASX:BME) gained well into the double digits after informing the market that the previously announced sale of 100% of its acreage and its title and interest in the Half Moon prospect, a well in the Permian basin, currently held by subsidiary Seven Rivers, has been settled. BME will pocket $10.4 million for the sale.

Native Mineral Resources (ASX:NMR) rose strongly on Monday after reporting some positive assays from its first pass field work program at the newly acquired McLaughlin Lake Lithium Project in Manitoba in Canada.

These initial sampling results confirm the presence of high-grade lithium at McLaughlin Lake, with two assays from one of the known “Barry” pegmatite occurrences returning assays of 2.25% and 2.77% Li20 respectively.

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS

XReality Group (ASX:XRG) – Pending an announcement by the Company to the market regarding a capital raising

Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) – Pending the release of an announcement to the market in relation to a proposed material acquisition and capital raising

Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) – Pending the finalisation of funding associated with the Kathleen Valley Project

Anatara Lifesciences (ASX:ANR) – Pending an announcement in relation to an update on the analysis of secondary endpoints from the GaRP Irritable Bowel Syndrome Trial Stage 1 data (GaRP Trial)