On Stockhead today, why St Baker just piled into State Gas, how to spot a clinical trial with a market chance, and three sensible stocks for turbulent times.

But first, the day ahead.

Local shares are set to rebound on Tuesday. At 8am AEST, the ASX 200 October futures contract was pointing up by 0.85%.

Consumer and households have been quite resilient in the face of rising cost of living and interest rate pressure, says CommSec.

Today, Roy Morgan/ANZ jointly issue the weekly consumer confidence survey, while the ABS publishes the Labour Force Status of Families report as of June 2022.

The RBA issues the minutes of the October 4 monetary policy meeting when it increased the cash rate target by 0.25% to 2.6%.

“The rate hike was the 6th consecutive monthly increase,” CommSec says.

“And while policymakers slowed down the pace of their policy tightening, they reiterated their ‘determination to return inflation to target and will do what is necessary to achieve that’.”

TRADING HALTS

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

Lithium Energy (ASX:LEL) – exploration results at the Solaroz lithium brine project in Argentina

AuKing Mining (ASX:AKN) – project acquisition

Camplify Holdings (ASX:CHL) – proposed acquisition and equity raising.

Resource Mining Corporation (ASX:RMI) – capital raise and possible acquisition

Frontier Energy (ASX:FHE) – capital raise

TZ (ASX:TZL) – a correction to FY22 accounts

Beston Global Food Company (ASX:BFC) – capital raise

Duke Exploration (ASX:DEX) – acquisition of portfolio of Queensland copper assets

Peppermint Innovation (ASX:PIL) – important agreement for the company in the Philippines

Felix Gold (ASX:FXG) – material drilling results from the company’s project in Alaska

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: $US1,650.80 (+0.55%)

Silver: $US18.65 (+2.15%)

Nickel (3mth): $US21,564/t (-0.97%)

Copper (3mth): $US7,531.50/t (-0.09%)

Lithium Carbonate, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, OCT 12): $US72,200/t (+108.2% year-to-date)

Lithium Hydroxide, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, OCT 12): $US71,850/t (+146.9% year-to-date)

Oil (WTI): $US86.01 (+0.47%)

Oil (Brent): $US92.17 (+0.59%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US94.93 (-1.04%)

AUD/USD: 0.6293 (+0.1%)

Bitcoin: $US19,582 (+1.62%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING YESTERDAY?

Lithium is the safe haven now.

 

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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.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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Entertainment and comms company Swift (ASX:SW1) secured a new three-year agreement worth $3.4m to service Mineral Resources’ (ASX:MIN) nine mine sites with flagship product Swift Access.

Explorer Southern Gold (ASX:SAU) is staking new ground in historic South Korean copper-gold-silver mining district. Plans are underway to advance to drill testing at three projects in 2023, it says.

Rehydration stock Hydralyte (ASX:HPC) has scored a $12m loan from major shareholder PURE Asset Management to market its products through Canada and the US.

And Strike Resources (ASX:SRK) spinoff, $70m market cap Lithium Energy (ASX:LEL), is in a trading halt pending drilling results from Solaroz lithium brine project in Argentina.

SRK currently holds +36% of LEL shares, which saw the company gain 25% for the day.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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Hawsons Iron (ASX:HIO) will slow work on a project bankable feasibility study due to “escalating global costs and deteriorating economic conditions”.

The BFS will not be completed by the end of December 2022, it says.

Low grade gold drilling results from Nelson Resources’ (ASX:NES) Woodline and Tempest projects failed to impress investors.

Construction materials and lime producer Adbri (ASX:ABC)  advises that CEO and managing director Nick Miller will be leaving the role.

ABC also said earnings have continued to be impacted by ongoing wet weather conditions affecting volume and cost, and an escalation of input and operational costs.