Local markets opened higher this morning, with every sector enjoying some time in the sunshine, despite a lull among tech stocks led by market volatility in that sector – no doubt a spillover from the horror display put on by US market darling Nvidia, which is in freefall and shedding value like an elderly dog shedding its coat.
I’ll get into the details on that in a moment, but first to the story of one unlucky member of the public who found out the hard way that impersonating a cop in New Orleans rarely ends well.
Local media have reported that 45-year-old William Gilchrist, who had kitted out his car with blue flashing lights and gotten his hands on some dodgied-up ID that said he was 100% a very real police officer, was out “on patrol” a few weeks ago when he spotted a vehicle that he believed to be breaking the law.
Sadly for him, the car he pulled over turned out to be an even-more 100% very real police officer – a detective in an unmarked car – who figured out quite quickly that the fake detective badge and fake US Marshals Service identification card meant that Gilchrist most definitely was not a deputy – just a very enthusiastic amateur in search of an adrenaline rush.
Gilchrist was arrested on the spot and charged with impersonating an officer, possession of fraudulent identification and fitting “improper lights” to his car.
Which is great, since he’s now going to get to spend loads of time hanging out with police back at the station, trying to explain why on earth he’d wanted to pretend to be a cop in the first place.
TO MARKETS
Local markets opened higher this morning, despite a mixed result out of the US overnight, where investors have been learning a harsh lesson about overvalued and overhyped tech stocks since Friday.
Other than a wobble in the tech sector here this morning, however, we seem to be moving ahead nicely despite the quiet panic among investors that have seen a sizeable chunk of their Nvidia fortunes going up in smoke since Friday.
Up the fancy end of town in Australia, some not-so-fancy food has driven one large cap to a huge gain this morning. Collins Food – purveyors of buckets of greasy chicken to the masses via its ownership of the KFC brand in Australia – has pulled off something of a corporate miracle.
Collins’ net profit jumped by more than 500% to $76.7 million for FY24, off the back of a relatively small revenue spike of 10.4% to just under $1.5 billion for the same period.
So… either the company’s been running at a razor thin margin for the previous 12 months, or something major has happened somewhere along the supply chain. But, because the idea of suddenly and suspiciously cheap chicken doesn’t exactly sit well at lunch time, let’s celebrate this as a corporate turnaround so we can keep eating the Colonel’s greasy birds without feeling too much guilt… or anxiety.
Meanwhile, Qantas has been shopping, announcing that it has snapped up 14 De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft – used, of course – to help bulk out and eventually replace its ageing turbo-prop fleet, used for short-hop domestic flights between places you didn’t know had airports.
A look at the sectors around midday looked like this:
Chart via Market Index
And a look at the ASX indices looked like this:
Chart via Market Index
NOT THE ASX
Overnight the S&P 500 fell by -0.31%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was up by +0.67%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled by -1.09%.
The banner headline news from the US has been the collapse of Nvidia’s share price, which has fallen a truly alarming 13% over the past few sessions, wiping US$646 billion off its market cap, sparking major fears that the company has been widely overvalued.
Trump Media & Technology surged by more than +20% following news that it anticipated receiving over US$69.4 million from the cash exercise of warrants last week.
Airbus rose modestly despite lowering its earnings and aircraft delivery targets for the year due to ongoing supply-chain problems.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals was the best stock overnight, rising by +35% after its drug successfully treated severe and fatal heart disease, possibly paving the way for significant growth in its leading flagship drug.
In Asian markets this morning, both the Nikkei and the Hang Seng are up slightly, but Shanghai markets are flat.
WINNERS
Code Company Price % Change Volume Market Cap OAR OAR Resources Ltd 0.002 100% 1,000,000 $3,222,100 1MC Morella Corporation 0.003 50% 2,410,766 $12,357,599 TKL Traka Resources 0.002 33% 500,000 $2,625,988 TMK TMK Energy Limited 0.004 33% 7,309,328 $20,734,836 RAD Radiopharm Theranostics 0.044 29% 4,629,396 $15,652,480 OLY Olympio Metals L 0.028 27% 145,082 $1,880,482 HLX Helix Resources 0.0025 25% 2,235,166 $6,528,387 LPD Lepidico Ltd 0.0025 25% 4,070,150 $17,178,239 MOH Moho Resources 0.005 25% 280,000 $2,156,713 ASO Aston Minerals Ltd 0.011 22% 2,492,163 $11,655,578 BSX Blackstone Ltd 0.045 22% 2,400,587 $19,436,881 MTM MTM Critical Metals 0.045 22% 340,000 $10,400,953 FAU First Au Ltd 0.003 20% 184,314 $4,154,983 NAG Nagambie Resources 0.012 20% 312,506 $7,966,357 VAR Variscan Mines Ltd 0.006 20% 818,044 $1,895,002 ZMM Zimi Ltd 0.013 18% 126,734 $1,356,829 AUG Augustus Minerals 0.047 18% 916,044 $3,414,800 QXR Qx Resources Limited 0.007 17% 3,976,647 $6,660,467 SPQ Superior Resources 0.007 17% 2,000,000 $12,007,323 HE8 Helios Energy Ltd 0.036 16% 1,634,980 $80,725,533 EZZ EZZ Life Science 1.45 16% 108,643 $55,738,566 RCL Readcloud 0.09 15% 881,079 $11,403,951 RDN Raiden Resources Ltd 0.03 15% 9,772,835 $70,550,024 AN1 Anagenics Limited 0.008 14% 156,471 $3,229,243 EPM Eclipse Metals 0.008 14% 1,802,258 $15,755,989
TMK Energy (ASX:TMK) says the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia has endorsed the Gurvantes XXXV Project through approval of its Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) submission. The approval grants TMK permission to conduct significant drilling and appraisal activities into 2029.
Developer of radiopharmaceutical products for both diagnostic and therapeutic uses Radiopharm Theranostics (ASX:RAD) has received firm commitments to raise ~$70 million through a placement to international and Aussie institutional and industry investors, including Lantheus Holdings and specialist US healthcare investors.
Helix Resources (ASX:HLX) has announced further positive results in its search for new copper-gold deposits from the auger geochemical sampling program in the Eastern Group tenements, ~40km southeast of Nyngan, home of the Big Bogan, in central NSW.
Blackstone Minerals (ASX:BSX) has received $1m as an advance from an R&D lending fund backed by Asymmetric Innovation Finance and Fiftyone Capital on its future 2024 refundable tax offset for R&D expenditure. BSX says the advance reflects its ongoing investment to develop the Ta Khoa Refinery process and “unique strategy to convert nickel concentrate blends into battery products in the form of precursor cathode active material”.
Augustus Minerals (ASX:AUG) has contracted UTS Geophysics to conduct a VTEM Max survey on several copper-PGE-nickel-zinc-lead-silver and uranium targets within the 3,600km2 Ti Tree project. The survey, scheduled to start in August, will help to unearth the untapped potential of the Ti Tree project to host economic mineralisation.
QX Resources (ASX:QXR) says it will undertake a new program of trenching to extend known high grade gold mineralisation at its Big Red Project in Queensland where prior trenching returned results including mineralised widths of 9m @ 5.9g/t Au.
LOSERS
Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap TD1 Tali Digital Ltd 0.001 -50% 62,500 $6,590,311 88E 88 Energy Ltd 0.002 -33% 4,700,000 $86,678,016 SFG Seafarms Group Ltd 0.002 -33% 200,000 $14,509,798 CZN Corazon Ltd 0.005 -29% 1,618,048 $4,309,185 ECT Environmental Clean Technologies 0.003 -25% 335,024 $12,687,242 IEC Intra Energy Corp 0.0015 -25% 10,050,000 $3,381,563 TMX Terrain Minerals 0.003 -25% 122,356 $5,726,683 YAR Yari Minerals Ltd 0.003 -25% 645,579 $1,929,431 KOR Korab Resources 0.007 -22% 344,857 $3,303,450 PHO Phosco Ltd 0.027 -21% 522,000 $9,511,438 EEL Enrg Elements Ltd 0.002 -20% 12,024,383 $2,524,913 ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.004 -20% 7,559,348 $27,111,136 SI6 SI6 Metals Limited 0.002 -20% 8,708,140 $5,922,149 SIH Sihayo Gold Limited 0.002 -20% 2,150,000 $30,510,640 TAS Tasman Resources Ltd 0.004 -20% 186,500 $3,563,346 RGT Argent Biopharma Ltd 0.25 -19% 19,184 $14,036,863 KP2 Kore Potash PLC 0.026 -19% 636,082 $20,865,465 AM7 Arcadia Minerals 0.043 -17% 100,000 $6,086,605 AEV Avenira Limited 0.005 -17% 400,000 $14,094,204 AMD Arrow Minerals 0.0025 -17% 16,627,151 $31,618,095 BXN Bioxyne Ltd 0.005 -17% 1,000,000 $12,279,872 PRM Prominence Energy 0.005 -17% 15,000 $1,868,258 VML Vital Metals Limited 0.0025 -17% 1,332,436 $17,685,201 WLD Wellard Limited 0.016 -16% 24,622 $10,093,756 EXL Elixinol Wellness 0.003 -14% 74,824 $4,624,138
ICYMI – AM EDITION
Frontier Energy (ASX:FHE) has flagged an opportunity in the Western Australian energy market noted in the recent Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) 2024 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) for the WA Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM), which forecasts a significant shortfall of power generation in WA from 2027 onwards.
The ESOO points to a need for new electricity generation and storage to be brought online quickly, with at least 391MW of new capacity required in the 2027-28 capacity year, increasing to 2,880MW by 2033-34.
This bodes well for the company’s Waroona renewable energy project’s Stage One operation, which comprises a 120MWdc solar facility with integrated 80MW four-hour battery storage – and is set to come online in 2026/2027.
** On a personal note, I wanted to add something here. Today’s a difficult one, because I’m saying goodbye to a colleague. A man to whom I owe a debt of gratitude that I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to repay. I’m going to miss working with you, Pete. More than I could ever look you in the eye to tell you, because I doubt I’d get through it without shedding a few very unmanly tears. It won’t be the same without you, man. Thank you. For everything. xx g.
(Ed: I’d edit for clarity but think it’s just something in my eye making everything blurry dammit.)
And I’m going back to bed because I feel like death warmed up with some dreaded lurgy.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Frontier Energy is a Stockhead advertiser, they did not sponsor this article.
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