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

On Stockhead today, a disastrous year for ETFs, what do we do about gas, and where will we find 24,000 mine workers?

Local shares are set to open marginally higher today. At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 July futures is pointing up by 0.05%.

But first, the day ahead.

Ooh, it’s PMIs day here at home. Hold onto your butts, here comes:

• S&P Global Australia PMI Composite
• S&P Global Australia PMI Services, and
• S&P Global Australia PMI Manufacturing

We’ll also get a market reaction to overnight drops from US Existing Home Sales and US Initial Jobless Claims, the Eurozone Consumer Confidence for July, Japan Trade Balance June AND EU ECB President Christine Lagarde (squee) has a presser!

How good are Fridays!

TRADING HALTS

Montem Resources (ASX: MR1) – pending a material announcement

Morella Corporation (ASX:1MC) – pending capital raise

Tombola Gold (ASX:TBA) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a material capital raising transaction

MARKETS

Gold: $US1,717.55 (+1.24%)

Silver: $US18.81 (+0.84%)

Nickel (3mth): $US21,600/t (+1.99%)

Copper (3mth): $US7,299/t (-1.07%)

Lithium Carbonate, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, June 30): $US69,750/t (0.0% weekly)

Lithium Hydroxide, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, June 30): $US70,875/t (0.0% weekly)

Oil (WTI): $US96.35 (-3.50%)

Oil (Brent): $US103.89 (-2.84%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US105.27 (+0.73%)

AUD/USD: 0.6928 (-0.1%)

Bitcoin: $US23,027 (-0.98%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING?

Not all lithiums are created equal – are you a hard rock person, or a briney?

– Hard rock – initially cost intensive, produces lithium hydroxide for battery makers
– Lithium brines – cheaper to develop, produce lithium carbonate
– Producing lithium from clays and geothermal brines is probably your Plan C https://t.co/55fu2DpJpj

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) July 20, 2022

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Also, be sure to check in at 10.20am each day for our daily ‘10 at 10’ column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

YESTERDAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Diamond explorer Burgundy Diamond Mines (ASX:BDM) was up over 20% on the launch of a new ‘ultra-luxury’ diamond brand – Maison Mazerea – in Paris earlier this month.

The company says that’s the final stage of a strategy to become a “world-leading end-to-end fancy colour diamond business”.

Crazed rough diamonds aside, the vertically integrated model of mining and buying rough stones – cutting, and polishing, then selling via Maison Mazerea – will allow Burgundy to capture the full margins from the diamond value chain and seriously differentiates its value proposition.

And shares in the Perth-based gold-nickel Torque Metals (ASX:TOR) jumped whole heap on zero news and only slightly higher volumes.

TOR was last in the news when it began exploration at its Domingo and Melchior nickel prospects within the Paris Project, southeast of Kalgoorlie in the gold-rich Boulder Lefroy Fault Zone.

“We anticipate plenty of news flow from this nickel search, and the Paris gold drilling program in the coming weeks,” CEO Cristian Moreno says.

YESTERDAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.