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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Tuesday, 7 November.

Aussie shares are poised to open lower on Tuesday despite gains Wall Street. At 8am AEST, the ASX 200 index futures was pointing down by -0.2%.

On Stockhead today…

Warren Buffett’s business buffet, the conglomerate that is Berkshire Hathaway, dropped its Q3 report over the weekend. Christian Edwards delves into why, despite reporting a net loss of US$12.77 billion, the company’s operating income erupted – surging by 40.65% on the previous Q3 – from $7.65bn to $10.76bn.

Broker MA Moelis has initiated coverage on two ASX stocks, Silk Logistics (ASX:SLH) and Shine Justice (ASX:SHJ), with a Buy rating. Here’s why it thinks we should get into these two stocks now.

And Josh Chiat reports on Barrick Gold’s Mark Bristow as he pours cold water on M&A.

But first..

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,977.00 (-0.77%)

Silver: US$23.02 (-0.76%)

Nickel (3mth): US$18,223/t (+1.36%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,175.50/t (+0.40%)

Oil (WTI): US$80.92(+0.51%)

Oil (Brent): US$85.32 (+0.51%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$126.63/t (+0.38%)

AUD/USD: 0.6487 (-0.3%)

Bitcoin: US$35,086 (+0.97%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Pioneer Lithium (ASX:PLN) has added another string to its bow with the acquisition of a greenfields property in northwest Ontario, nestled between Patriot Lithium’s (ASX:PAT) Dryden project and Canadian-listed Beyond Lithium’s Victory and Victory West project

Strickland Metals (ASX:STK) is on a tear ever since it sold its Millrose gold project to Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) for a whopping $61m. Aggressive’ RC drilling has commenced across an initial 300m of the mapped 700m strike at the Marwari gold discovery.

And this…

The #mining majors are prepping for a #copper boom. So, where are the massive discoveries going to come from? | #ASX #exploration #porphyry https://t.co/oohQe5DFWT

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) November 5, 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
NRZR	Neurizer Ltd - Rights 10-Nov-23 Def	0.002	100%	1,493,610	$127,674
TWER	Treasury Wine Estate - Rts16Nov23 Forusdef	0.86	74%	81,288	$37,811,095
WSP	Whispir Limited	0.4825	61%	4,197,436	$39,291,768
CLE	Cyclone Metals	0.0015	50%	21,708,476	$10,264,505
MKL	Mighty Kingdom Ltd	0.016	45%	1,671,739	$4,624,066
TG6	Tgmetalslimited	0.675	36%	12,212,843	$19,949,263
M4M	Macro Metals Limited	0.004	33%	3,513,194	$5,961,233
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.004	33%	1,944,592	$3,124,130
8IH	8I Holdings Ltd	0.012	33%	30,522	$3,216,204
NSM	Northstaw	0.065	33%	688,765	$5,886,223
OZM	Ozaurum Resources	0.13	31%	3,613,629	$15,716,250
CHK	Cohiba Min Ltd	0.0025	25%	383,999	$4,426,488
GTG	Genetic Technologies	0.0025	25%	66,658	$23,083,316
LBT	LBT Innovations	0.005	25%	293,253	$1,423,601
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.0025	25%	4,220,000	$4,411,837
COV	Cleo Diagnostics	0.205	24%	1,068,775	$12,183,188
EXL	Elixinol Wellness	0.011	22%	2,604,642	$5,682,095
TRT	Todd River Res Ltd	0.011	22%	5,229,430	$5,863,928
S3N	Sensore Ltd	0.11	22%	18,929	$3,275,392
KZA	Kazia Therapeutics	0.067	22%	1,622,414	$12,999,216
CLU	Cluey Ltd	0.088	21%	60,536	$14,717,790
XGL	Xamble Group Limited	0.06	20%	56,000	$14,207,812
CTO	Citigold Corp Ltd	0.006	20%	2,542,078	$14,368,295
CXU	Cauldron Energy Ltd	0.012	20%	14,190,554	$9,735,687
ESR	Estrella Res Ltd	0.006	20%	30,737,107	$8,795,359

Yesterday’s Small Caps highlights:

On a dull Monday morning in Sydney, the Aussie comms-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) Soprano Design lobbed an off-market takeover play for Whispir (ASX:WSP) for circa $64 million.

Soprano, it turns out, has already been lugging some 15% of Whispir shares around town and is run by the former Appen (ASX:APX) boss Mark Brayan and with private equity backing probably thought the offer for little Whispir was a done deal.

Not so.

The cloud-comms tech firm was onto it in a flash this morning – telling shareholders not to move a muscle while the board thinks of a better number than the all-cash 48¢ a pop offer.

Mighty Kingdom (ASX:MKL) meanwhile, has reported a September quarter without any massive holes blown through it by the universe. A welcome change.

Quarterly Games revenue of $2m is up a sterling +38% increase pcp, while the game developer says ongoing contracts – with cool set-ups like East Side Games, Google and Spinmaster – has driven “continued growth in baseline revenue to ensure long term sustainability”.

Better yet, the MK’s cost control strategy has resulted in a 13% cut in quarter-on-quarter expenses, combining to reflect a 31% reduction in costs compared to the pcp.

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
REM	Remsensetechnologies	0.038	-34%	270,500	$5,701,985
KNM	Kneomedia Limited	0.002	-33%	1	$4,514,356
RBR	RBR Group Ltd	0.002	-33%	2	$4,855,214
TGH	Terragen	0.02	-29%	1,326,160	$10,334,272
AHN	Athena Resources	0.003	-25%	1	$4,281,870
CCE	Carnegie Cln Energy	0.0015	-25%	522,371	$31,285,147
DCX	Discovex Res Ltd	0.0015	-25%	1	$6,605,136
LNU	Linius Tech Limited	0.0015	-25%	1,020,000	$9,044,581
MGTR	Magnetite Mines - Rights 09-Nov-23	0.003	-25%	29,428	$83,744
NNG	Nexion Group	0.012	-25%	596,999	$3,236,926
SIH	Sihayo Gold Limited	0.0015	-25%	1	$24,408,512
TMR	Tempus Resources Ltd	0.009	-25%	9,640,861	$4,115,074
BVR	Bellavistaresources	0.095	-24%	12,590	$6,017,305
HPR	High Peak Royalties	0.05	-23%	175,000	$13,523,881
AD1	AD1 Holdings Limited	0.004	-20%	100,000	$4,112,845
DOU	Douugh Limited	0.004	-20%	507,977	$5,338,545
ERL	Empire Resources	0.004	-20%	1	$5,564,675
FAU	First Au Ltd	0.002	-20%	1	$3,629,983
LSR	Lodestar Minerals	0.004	-20%	2,435,689	$10,116,987
ROO	Roots Sustainable	0.004	-20%	24,529	$766,562
SFG	Seafarms Group Ltd	0.004	-20%	126,396	$24,182,996
HMD	Heramed Limited	0.033	-18%	690,376	$11,180,568
EEL	Enrg Elements Ltd	0.005	-17%	24,000	$6,059,790
SI6	SI6 Metals Limited	0.005	-17%	1,004,224	$11,963,157
OSX	Osteopore Limited	0.042	-16%	56,901	$7,745,932