It's the ASX mum. Nothing. Just sitting there... lifeless. Via Getty
Small Caps Lunch Wrap: ASX falls as fears rise of inflation at home and of AI elsewhere
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Local markets have already muddled up Monday, taking the mixed cues from a tech-weakened Wall Street lead on Friday as chip king Nvidia (NVDA) and a few other plump AI-related stocks appeared to ripe for sale time.
At lunchtime in Sydenham, (NSW 2044), the S&P/ASX200 is falling down, dropping 50.20 points or 0.64% to 7,745.80.
Perhaps last week’s surprisingly robust outperformance from the ASX has put a little too much anxiety on local traders as guilty thoughts of easier pickings weighed ahead of this week’s almost-here-already key CPI inflation read.
Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday will release the consumer price index indicator for May. Economists are expecting the CPI indicator to increase to 3.8 per cent, up from 3.6 per cent in April.
No one likes the thought of Reserve Bank finding a fresh reason to lift the cash rate… not now that the Canucks and the Swiss are starting to do the opposite and turn rates around.
The benchmark fell 0.2% right off the opening bell as Consumer Discretionary, Utility, Healthcare and Energy stocks fell.
Consumer Discretionary stocks were just awful. Considering the amount of early bloodshed for City Chic Collective (ASX:CCX), Cettire (ASX:CTT), AuMake International (ASX:AUK) and the like, perhaps things will pick up in the arvo when things can’t possibly get worse.
City Chic Collective just completed its institutional placement of its “1 for 2.04 pro-rata accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer of new fully paid ordinary shares” in City Chic.
That’s why the shares seem to be about half what they were worth on Friday.
Phil Ryan, CEO says the placement has delivered about of $14.6 million (before costs).
He’s delighted by it all. Wait, all of them are:
“We are delighted with the exceptional level of support received from our existing institutional shareholders and very pleased to obtain the support of some new institutions. Their collective support positions us to build on the positive momentum our recent initiatives are generating going into FY25.”
Monday morning’s 20 worst performing S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary (XDJ:ASX) stocks
Elsewhere in there, Cettire’s plummet from great heights came quickly this morning, after an update suggesting Q4 trading would be become more of a challenge due to fizzling demand and thinning profit margins.
JB Hi-Fi and Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) were both down about 3.7%.
But Monday morning, there was weakness everywhere, frankly.
Abso no help coming from Mining stocks again, as the cornerstome of the ASX failed to relieve the pressure. The price of oil is falling for a second straight week against the mighty USD.
Commodity prices have been struggling and Singapore iron ore futures traded lower 1.3% to $US103.70 a tonne on the July contract.
Profit taking has taken a bite out of Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) which is down 3.6%.
The excitement in energy names is almost contained to nuclear-leaning stocks like uranium house Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) which has halted this morning ahead of news of likely M&A.
Tech stocks were the best of a bad Monday bunch, led by majors WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) up 1.8% and NextDC (ASX:NXT).
Healthcare was heavily weighed down by the heavily weighted that stride amid them.
Cochlear (ASX:COH) dropped 1.2% and CSL (ASX:CSL) slipped 0.5%.
But there was ordinary elsewhere.
The headline effort’s been from widely owned sleep apnoea device maker, ResMed (ASX:RMD), which was scuttled some 12% after anti-fat pharma Eli Lilly shared US Food and Drug Administration on a potential label expansion for its weight loss therapy tirzepatide against obstructive sleep apnoea was expected later this year.
Long and short is we’ve covered this ground before with RMD, but it looks like the doubt is hard to shake.
Monday morning’s 20 worst performing S&P/ASX 200 Health Care (XHJ:ASX) stocks
NOT THE ASX
Around the traps, regional stock markets were mostly also crap on Monday.
A firmer dollar driven by concerns that the Federal Reserve could keep interest rates higher for longer amid solid US business activity data also weighed on risk assets.
Meanwhile, investors look ahead to Australian inflation figures and Japanese retail sales, industrial production and unemployment data for May this week for fresh clues on countries’ respective economies and monetary policies. Shares in South Korea, Hong Kong and China declined, while Japanese stocks advanced as the yen weakened further.
US equities traded mixed on Friday after, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reached all-time highs as technology stocks continued to rally despite uncertainties around the economic outlook and Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
Friday was a significant event for Wall Street with the “triple witching” of Buffyesque fame – which happens once every quarter and sees the simultaneous expiration of derivatives contracts tied to equities, index options, and futures – had an estimated US$5.5 trillion in contracts maturing.
The trading volume this time was exceptionally high, says Our Eddie Sunarto.
“Nearly 18 billion shares were exchanged on US markets — over 55% above the three-month average.”
The S&P 500 finished Friday 0.2% lower.
The Nasdaq Composite also dipped 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged higher by just 0.04% to 39,150.
For the week that was, the S&P500 hit an intraday record of 5,505.53 on Tuesday, and closed up 0.6% for the week.
The Dow was the best performer of the major indexes adding 1.45% for the week.
Nvidia, which briefly snatched the world’s most valuable company title last week, has led the US AI-rally from day dot.
But after these sudden losses including a hefty fall on Thursday, (and down 3% Friday), the chip stocks next door also started to sell off for the first time in yonks.
The AI fun lost steam, however momentarily with Broadcom (AVGO), Super Micro Computer (SMCI), and Qualcomm (QCOM), all sliding behind Nvidia.
US stock futures eased on Monday as investors searched for fresh catalysts in the final trading days of June and the first half of 2024, with the market jitterbugging near record highs.
Meanwhile in La France, le voting will take place this week with the first round of President Emmanuel Macron’s hastily called “Le Snap” parliamentary election which will drop this Sunday 7th.
Polls suggest a strong showing for the actually very far right Rassemblement National. Marine Le Pen runs that, and she’s a handful of Trumpiness.
It’d be tres mauviase I’d reckon, if France goes full populist on the highway to nationalism.
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 24 June [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Company Price % Change Volume Market Cap K2F K2Fly Ltd 0.185 85% 1,321,651 $18,692,719 PPY Papyrus Australia 0.018 64% 681,678 $5,419,619 MTB Mount Burgess Mining 0.0015 50% 5,384 $1,298,147 VML Vital Metals Limited 0.003 50% 2,379,640 $11,790,134 TSL Titanium Sands Ltd 0.007 40% 963,271 $11,058,736 LNU Linius Tech Limited 0.002 33% 355,000 $8,320,111 FNR Far Northern Res 0.2 29% 42,144 $5,540,603 DAL Dalaroometalsltd 0.024 26% 2,217,382 $1,572,250 BLZ Blaze Minerals Ltd 0.005 25% 850,000 $2,514,233 ESR Estrella Res Ltd 0.005 25% 106,250 $7,037,487 MCT Metalicity Limited 0.0025 25% 500,000 $8,971,705 PKO Peako Limited 0.005 25% 100,000 $2,108,339 AQI Alicanto Min Ltd 0.023 21% 4,190,709 $11,696,149 JRV Jervois Global Ltd 0.023 21% 26,551,293 $51,352,512 CYP Cynata Therapeutics 0.29 21% 335,400 $43,111,629 PVE Po Valley Energy Ltd 0.036 20% 217,556 $34,768,849 PVT Pivotal Metals Ltd 0.018 20% 460,280 $10,561,774 EEL Enrg Elements Ltd 0.003 20% 6,333 $2,524,913 BCM Brazilian Critical 0.019 19% 99,317 $13,291,831 CHW Chilwaminerals 0.735 19% 7,591 $28,442,501 FTZ Fertoz Ltd 0.032 19% 34,750 $6,756,720 ARV Artemis Resources 0.013 18% 1,249,891 $19,406,158 ZMM Zimi Ltd 0.013 18% 495,266 $1,356,829 KNI Kunikolimited 0.23 18% 329,156 $16,895,632 PIL Peppermint Inv Ltd 0.01 18% 3,462,506 $18,031,546
Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) drills into thick, high grade niobium at the Crean carbonatite, part of the Aileron project in the red-hot West Arunta region of WA.
Highlights include 52m @ 3% Nb2O5 from 81m to end of hole, including 16m @ 6% Nb2O5.
Wait.
I have a better idea:
ENR MD and noted space explorer Will Robinson said:
“Aircore drilling is opening up new fronts of shallow niobium-REE carbonatite hosted mineralisation at Aileron. The aircore rig completed over 10,000m of drilling in its first month on site. This drilling has expanded the near surface footprint of the Crean, Hurley and Emily carbonatites.
The aircore rig has now moved to the untested Green and Joyce targets located east of WA1 Resources’ Luni carbonatite discovery. Drilling will start with broad spaced aircore traverses and then move to closer spaced drilling based on initial observations. Aircore drilling is proving to be a fast, low impact and cost-efficient.”
The iron ore and lithium explorer Burley Minerals (ASX:BUR) has jumped on news veteran cap markets exeuctive Dan Bahen is joining the BUR Board as non-executive chairman.
Dan has a bunch of experience – over 23 years of capital markets, commercial and finance – including 22 years with Paterson Securities and then Canaccord Genuity.
The company says Bahen has been an investor in Burley since the IPO and holds a 5.1% relevant interest in the company.
And Reward Minerals (ASX:RWD) says that the International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) has provided a positive Preliminary Report on the “Patentability” of its processing technology (Reward Process) for recovery of PotassiumSulphate (K2SO4 or SOP) directly from concentrated seawater and other high-sulphate brines.
RWD says the IPEA found that claims 1-17 meet the requirements for novelty under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) .
The next step required is the filing by Reward of national/regional phase applications by February 2025.
Reward CEO Lorry Hughes calls it another key step toward transforming the SOP industry via commercialisation of Reward’s processing technology.
“The technology is relatively simple, it negates the need for the removal of waste salts by expensive mechanical harvesting and it does not require complicated and expensive flotation processing steps to separate waste salts from SOP.
“All this points toward a significant reduction in production costs compared to existing operations and methods. Importantly there appears potential for the first time globally, to produce SOP from waste brines or bitterns from solar salt operations using seawater as feed brine on a commercial basis. This could allow operations in coastal areas with established transport infrastructure to produce and ship SOP to market at competitive prices.
“By targeting cheaper costs of production as outlined in the Company’s engineering study completed in September 2023 there should be opportunities to also grow the SOP market globally as it is a highly sought after fertiliser in short supply.”
And up about 17% is Myer (ASX:MYR) which has approached S. Lew connected Premier Investments (ASX:PMV) to explore a potential combination with its apparel brands business “to create one of the leading retail and apparel companies across Australia and New Zealand”.
Myer shares surged after the company announced it was exploring a merger with Solomon Lew’s Apparel Brands – which boasts the plucky fashion portfolio of retail brands like Portmans, Dotti, Just Jeans and Jay Jays.
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS
Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 24 June [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap 88E 88 Energy Ltd 0.002 -33% 4,680,791 $86,678,016 AMD Arrow Minerals 0.002 -33% 7,905,070 $31,618,095 CT1 Constellation Tech 0.002 -33% 50,019 $4,424,201 KOR Korab Resources 0.007 -30% 513,255 $3,670,500 AAU Antilles Gold Ltd 0.003 -25% 496,427 $3,986,140 AD1 AD1 Holdings Limited 0.006 -25% 398,750 $7,189,187 EDE Eden Inv Ltd 0.0015 -25% 48,000 $7,356,542 NAE New Age Exploration 0.003 -25% 10,889 $7,175,596 RIL Redivium Limited 0.003 -25% 5,214,430 $10,923,419 SGC Sacgasco Ltd 0.003 -25% 140,000 $3,118,748 AI1 Adisyn Ltd 0.02 -20% 427,398 $4,628,300 MOZ Mosaic Brands Ltd 0.08 -20% 2,416,124 $17,850,644 AUH Austchina Holdings 0.002 -20% 100,000 $5,250,959 NWF Newfield Resources 0.105 -19% 15,216 $122,291,379 HE8 Helios Energy Ltd 0.031 -18% 233,665 $98,953,879 AVE Avecho Biotech Ltd 0.0025 -17% 44,766 $9,507,891 BEL Bentley Capital Ltd 0.02 -17% 26,290 $1,827,070 OSL Oncosil Medical 0.005 -17% 510,932 $19,992,657 POS Poseidon Nick Ltd 0.005 -17% 483,790 $22,281,209 RNE Renu Energy Ltd 0.005 -17% 17,604 $4,356,804 SI6 SI6 Metals Limited 0.0025 -17% 4,283,334 $7,106,578 CGR Cgnresourceslimited 0.14 -15% 580,265 $14,978,402 AUA Audeara 0.029 -15% 238,978 $4,937,620 EVR Ev Resources Ltd 0.006 -14% 270,000 $9,248,900 EXT Excite Technology 0.006 -14% 31,000 $10,179,692
ICYMI – AM EDITION
Magnetic Resources (ASX:MAU) has appointed Perth-based corporate advisor, Argonaut PCF, as advisor in relation to its debt strategy for the Lady Julie gold project in WA.
Venture Minerals (ASX:VMS) is selling its subsidiary, Venture Iron – the holder of the Riley iron ore mine in Tasmania – for a tidy $3m.
Strategic Energy Resources (ASX:SER) has kicked off a gravity survey at its Canobie iron oxide copper-gold farm-in and joint venture project with Fortescue subsidiary FMG Resources.
Desoto Resources (ASX:DES) has completed legal, financial, and technical due diligence on its recently acquired Spectrum copper-rare earth elements-gold project in the NT, with drilling scheduled for August.
Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) has appointed Ross Dinsdale to the role of chief financial officer effective 10 July 2024.
And Sprintex’s (ASX:SIX) newly appointed exclusive distributor for its G series commercial blowers in the Republic of Türkiye has committed to minimum purchases totalling US$3.87m ($5.78m) over three years.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Magnetic Resources, Venture Minerals, Strategic Energy Resources, Desoto Resources, Galan Lithium and Sprintex are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
