On Stockhead today, 10 cheap ASX rare earths stocks, what Warren Buffett’s oil spending spree means, and how to beat inflation, 1970s-style.

But first … the day ahead.

Local shares are set to open lower today. At 8am AEST, the ASX 200 September futures contract is pointing down by 1%.

Set to list is Aeramentum Resources (ASX:AEN),  with plans to explore the Treasure (Black Pine) Project, in the Republic of Cyprus, which has numerous occurrences of high-grade nickel, copper, gold and cobalt in sulphides associated with a major transform fault.

 

TRADING HALTS

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

Dart Mining (ASX:DTM) – Dart’s got a placement up its sleeve, with details due later in the week. Hardly surprising since it went through the roof already this week. It’s all Barry’s fault.

Techgen Metals (ASX:TG1) – Techgen’s gonna spill the beans on whether it’s bitten into the beef with its maiden RC drilling campaign at the John Bull Project. Meanwhile, John Cow is nowhere to be seen, and authorities are working round the clock to establish the identity of John Doe.

Botanix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:BOT) – Botanix is kicking off a capital raise, planting the seeds of future growth, so they may blossom with the springtime and give us all hayfever for Botanix to cure. The circle of life continues.

Epsilon Healthcare (ASX:EPN) – And the last cool sounding company – Epsilon Healthcare – approaches, bearing tidings of completion of a capital raise. Outstanding.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: $US1,708.18 (-1.87%)

Silver: $US17.92 (-3.08%)

Nickel (3mth): $US21,370/t (+1%)

Copper (3mth): $US7,790.50/t (-0.93%)

Lithium Carbonate, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, Aug 17): $US71,200/t (+90.2% year-to-date)

Lithium Hydroxide, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, Aug 17): $US71,775/t (+127.4% year-to-date)

Oil (WTI): $US89.12 (-2.75%)

Oil (Brent): $US95.09 (-2.81%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US104.76 (-0.15%)

AUD/USD: 0.6837 (-0.70%%)

Bitcoin: $US20,094 (+0.96%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING YESTERDAY?

Lithium is one of the best performing metals of 2022 and literally no one is surprised.

 

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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 BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

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

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Shares in 4DMedical (ASX:4DX) climbed circa 33% after reporting a clinical trial found its XV Technology can detect constrictive bronchiolitis on US veterans exposed to harmful chemicals.

That type of chest problem can usually only be detected through a very painful, expensive and invasive surgical biopsy, the garden variety pulmonary function tests and CT scans don’t get near it.

The timing of the study is also welcome, with  US Pres Joe Biden recently legislating the expansion of healthcare benefits for veterans exposed to said toxic substances.

4DX says it is now looking to apply what it’s learned to try and detect other lung diseases so patients can get treated all the faster.

Nitro Software (ASX: NTO) went into a trading halt Tuesday night after a Potentia Capital Consortium decided its 41.4 million shares or 17% of total Nitro capital wasn’t going to cut it. Potentia Capital and co-investor HarbourVest Partners, lobbed an unsolicited, conditional,  non-binding and not entirely unwelcome bid to acquire the rest of Nitro at $1.58 cash per share.

The offer is subject to a six-week due diligence period, access to the usual transaction documents as well as Nitro Board getting on board. That’ll be where the rubber hits the glycerine.

Desert Metals (ASX:DM1) found some 75% since Tuesday’s announcement that a rare earths (REE) system at the Innouendy project could be, in the hallowed words repeated most recently by Reuben, The Big One.

And Tesoro Gold (ASX:TSO) has pulled up a 434.6m long intersection grading 1.22g/t gold from 15m depth at the 1.1Moz El Zorro project in Chile.

That includes a 90m section grading over 3g/t.

 

YESTERDAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

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

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