On Stockhead today, Eliza Owens tells Christian who lost the most money on housing, and Gregor’s spent literally minutes pulling together the ultimate ASXmas Carol for your pleasure.

 

But first, the day ahead.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,045.77 (+0.82%)

Silver: US$24.40 (+1.10%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,854/t (+0.64%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,582.50/t (-0.13%)

Oil (WTI): US$74.02 (-0.26%)

Oil (Brent): US$79.39 (-0.38%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$135.31/t (+1.11%)

AUD/USD: 0.6800 (+1%)

Bitcoin: US$44,017 (+0.79%)

 

TRADING HALTS

Peppermint Innovation (ASX:PIL) – acquisition of an Artificial intelligence (AI) and Customer Experience (CX) business

Tietto Minerals (ASX:TIE) – Pending the removal of an ASX release that was lodged in error

Invictus Energy (ASX:IVZ) – capital raising

Australian Pacific Coal (ASX:AQC) – capital raising

XPON Technologies (ASX:XPN) – proposed disposal of a material business

Mamba Exploration (ASX:M24) – acquisition and capital raising

Frugl Group (ASX:FGL) – outcome of a placement

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING YESTERDAY?

Brazilian Rare Earths (ASX:BRE) enjoyed a solid debut, finishing up ~9% to $1.60/sh.

Tightly held BRE counts Gina Rinehart and Whitehaven Coal as shareholders, alongside wealthy coal industry veterans Mark Lochtenberg and Brian Flannery.

Also holding a big chunk of stock are IperionX (ASX:IPX) board members and advisors Todd Hannigan, Taso Arima, Ray Nimrod and Dominic Allen.

Keep up to date with Stockhead coverage or you’ll miss gold like that EVERY DAY. Follow our Twitter page.

Also, be sure to check in at preopen each day for ‘Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to Watch’, and 10.30am for our daily ‘10 at 10’ column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

 

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:

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WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) was up 25% yesterday to all time highs, capping off a fairy-tale year for one of the ASX’s best performing stocks.

It is now up 8,580% since October last year on the back of a big, high-grade niobium-rare earths find in the remote West Arunta region of WA.

A bullish recommendation from research analysts Canaccord Genuity was probs partially responsible for yesterday’s action. You can read more about that here.

Vinyl Group (ASX:VNL) inked a +$10 million deal to acquire The Brag Media, publisher of iconic Rolling Stone in Australia and New Zealand.

It will be funded by WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) founder, CEO and keen muso Richard White,  who in his early days worked as roadie, repairing guitars on tour for bands  like AC/DC and The Angels.

Software company FirstWave Cloud Technology (ASX:FCT) secured a $1m transaction with Telmex, Mexico’s largest telecommunications group.

Metalicity (ASX:MCT) settled a years-long fracas with Nex Metals over the Kookynie and Yundamindra gold joint venture in WA.

MCT will now hold 80% of the JV, up from 51%.

 

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:

Wordpress Table Plugin

Maiden drilling at Norfolk Metals’ (ASX:NFL) Orroroo uranium project did not hit the paydirt it was hoping for.

Citing “margin pressures”, MotorCycle Holdings (ASX:MTO) expects to report underlying EBITDA of $14-$16m for the December half, down from $18m in the year-ago period.