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

On Stockhead today, 5 mining services stocks enjoying the boom time, Bottom Picker makes big bank, and are you Team Smart Beta or Team Alpha?

But first, the day ahead.

Local shares are set to open lower today. At 8am AEST, the ASX 200 September futures contract is pointing up by 0.40%.

A quiet week ahead on the domestic data front, say CommSec.

Globally, it is a different matter. Over the coming week, global central bankers, policymakers, and other bigwigs will gather for the closely watched annual economic jerkfest in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

“Interest rates and inflation will likely dominate policy discussions,” says CommSec.

China’s loan interest rates are also announced today.

“Continuing turmoil in the property market could see 1-year and 5-year rates cut by 10-basis points to 3.60 per cent and 4.25 per cent, respectively.”

What a world we live in. There’s a tonne more data drops and big moments this week, and they’re all in Eddy’s Diary.

Amongst the ASX companies due to release earning today are Ampol, Cooper Energy, Lendlease, Nick Scali, Southern Cross Media, and Star Entertainment.

WHO’S SCHEDULED TO LIST?

H&G HIGH CONVICTION (ASX:HCF)

Listing: 10:30am AEST

Raised: $30m

Hancock & Gore says it invests in companies trading at a significant discount to perceived inherent value.

“These companies have superior fundamental prospects, yet negative external events have attracted a flight of investors,” it says.

“The company seeks to assist investee companies to demonstrate, grow and realise their inherent value.​”

According to the H&G website, this is an actively managed portfolio of 20–25 investments in ASX-listed micro-cap companies (with market capitalisations under $300 million at the time of the initial investment).

H&G are targeting (key word) returns of at least 10% per annum (after fees).

TRADING HALTS

The following companies are in trading halts and are expected out in the next few days:

EQT Holdings (ASX:EQT) – pending an announcement around a proposed material acquisition and proposed equity raising

Cleanaway Waste Management Limited (ASX:CWY) – corporate transaction and an associated equity raising

Good Drinks Australia Limited (ASX:GDA) – acquisition

Fertoz (ASX:FTZ) – capital raise

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: $US1,746.50 (-0.67%)

Silver: $US19.058 (-2.37%)

Nickel (3mth): $US21,640/t (-0.00%)

Copper (3mth): $US8,031/t (+1.35%)

Lithium Carbonate, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, Aug 3): $US69,825/t

Lithium Hydroxide, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, Aug 3): $US70,000/t

Oil (WTI): $US90.77 (+0.33%)

Oil (Brent): $US95.89 (-0.72%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US104.00 (0.00%)

AUD/USD: 0.68763 (-0.54%)

Bitcoin: $US21,398 (=0.97%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING OVER THE WEEKEND?

Heartbreak for the Blues, but the finals are here!

The week one fixture for the 2022 Toyota AFL Finals Series has been locked in: https://t.co/CJ8CFyHt30 pic.twitter.com/G56iOJlpXg

— AFL (@AFL) August 21, 2022

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For all you crypto lovers Stockhead’s Coinhead Facebook group is the place to share your views, insights, tips and ideas.

Also, be sure to check in 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.

LAST WEEK’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for August 8 – August 12:

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

Last week’s big winner among the Small Caps has been Cobre (ASX:CBE), which has had an astonishing 200% rise over the past five days, off the back of news that its fourth drill hole had intersected a broad 69m zone of copper mineralisation which includes a 13m zone of abundant chalcocite mineralisation centred at 310m down hole.

Also performing well, but without any explanation so far, is Tasman Resources (ASX:TAS) which has climbed 117% despite having nothing to announce since well before it took off. And outside of a solid rump of penny dreadfuls, Belalarox (ASX:BRX) has delivered the best result, hauling in an impressive 42% gain.

LAST WEEK’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the least performing ASX small cap stocks for August 8 – August 12:

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

The tale of woe last week belonged to 4DS Memory (ASX:4DS), which had a most unfortunate result from its development lab.

The memory maker hit a major snag in its push to create new memory tech, announcing that “testing of the memory cells used in the imec megabit memory array showed unexpected problems with scaling the memory cell to small dimensions suitable for Storage Class Memory potential applications.”

In simpler terms, 4DS has fixed a major problem it had, by making an even bigger problem… hence, its price crashed on Tuesday and hasn’t really recovered, leaving a -67% crater on the books.

Next worst, and hinting that having a number in your ticker could be a portent of doom, was 92Energy (ASX:92E), which bled out slowly all week, despite a bit of cheerleading from the company, and an improving market for the uranium it’s exploring for.