Local markets are up this morning, following a really unusual night on Wall Street that saw investors in the so-called Magnificent 7 storming the exits and piling into New York’s small caps instead.
The ASX opened about +0.8% higher, before creeping higher throughout the morning session to set a new all-time best-ever-so-hooray-for-everything record, despite an apparent inability for InfoTech stocks to find much firm ground today.
I’ll get into the details of all that shortly, but first, we’re off to China to check in on a would-be wildlife smuggler who’s been busted at the airport with an alarming number of snakes in his pants.
Customs officers in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen spotted the man – who was, I assume, walking funny – at Futian Port, which is a well-travelled gateway between Hong Kong and mainland China.
Spotting something was possibly awry, officials decided to question the man, and were astonished to find he had six canvas bags strapped to his legs underneath his trousers.
Upon opening the bags, customs officials noted that there were dozens of snakes, in varying sizes and colours – and by the time they were done collecting them all from the smuggler, the tally stood at 104 reptiles.
The snakes were, thankfully, all non-venomous varieties, including milk snakes, western hognose snakes, corn snakes, Texas rat snakes and bullsnakes – four of which are not native to China, and are banned from unregistered importation.
Worryingly, Chinese customs officials declined to say what became of the smuggler, telling local media “if the regulations are violated, the customs will pursue legal liability in accordance with the law”.
China is no stranger to unregulated animal importation. According to CNN, just last month officials stopped one traveller on his way from Macau with 454 endangered turtles in his luggage.
TO MARKETS
The ASX has lifted on Friday morning, despite some big falls on Wall Street overnight, with local Real Estate sector stocks leading the charge.
At lunchtime, the ASX 200 benchmark was up more than +0.8% – and, in the process, managed to hit a new, all-time high when it moved to 7,953 points a few minutes past 11:00am today.
In the absence of any official celebrations, I do intend to set fire to a wheelie bin out the front of my house this afternoon.
(Truth be told, I was going to be doing it anyway, but this seems like a decent enough excuse to pin it on.)
Most of the morning’s buoyancy for local markets can be attributed to data out of the US that suggests their economy’s battle with inflation could be coming to a rapid end – I’ll explain more later – but it has put some spring in the step for local investors.
Chart via Marketindex.com.au
Driving the rise was our Real Estate sector, thanks to a huge rush on retail property owners and managers – Charter Hall (ASX:CHC) was up +5.2%, Westfield operator Scentre Group (ASX:SCG) added +2.8%, Stockland (ASX:SGP) was up 3.9%… you get the picture.
On top of that surge, the ASX goldies are also putting in a solid morning’s work, with the XGD All Ords Gold index up +2.39% after the precious metal moved back over US$2,400 per ounce overnight.
Chart via Marketindex.com.au
Time now to take a look overseas, and see what’s shakin’ in some other parts of the world.
NOT THE ASX
I’ll keep this brief. It’s Friday afternoon and you’re distracted.
The Reader’s Digest version of what happened on Wall Street last night is this: investors tipped out of the mega-stocks in droves, after the data for US June inflation dropped, and – as Christian Edwards pointed out so brilliantly this morning – ”literally screamed “cut me” to both interest rates and the US Federal Reserve”.
Investors instead flocked to US Small Caps, and that ended with an extremely rare result on the US market – for only the second time since 1979, the US small caps Russell 2000 index rose more than 3% while the S&P 500 declined.
Amazing stuff, and definitely a result for the stats nerds to get excited about.
Anyhoo – The S&P 500 dipped 0.88%, the Dow managed a +0.08% ray of hope, and the Nasdaq, which is home to most (I think) of the Magnificent 7, fell sharply by -1.95% thanks to -5.6% slump for Nvidia, and a -4.1% slump for Meta.
Among the casualties was Tesla, which dumped -8.4% after the company pushed back the launch of its Robotaxis by a couple of months to August, because – shockingly – they’re not going to be ready in time.
In Asian markets today, things are really mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up +2.1%, Shanghai is basically flat at -0.1% and Japan’s Nikkei has fallen -2.0% so far today.
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 12 July [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap MSG Mcs Services Limited 0.002 100.0 611,513 $198,100 WML Woomera Mining Ltd 0.003 50.0 938,263 $2,436,278 EXL Elixinol Wellness 0.004 33.3 136,781 $3,963,547 NUC Nuchev Limited 0.345 27.8 100,764 $39,511,612 KLI Killiresources 0.110 26.4 8,755,643 $10,459,466 ALR Altairminerals 0.005 25.0 8,882,169 $17,186,310 CTO Citigold Corp Ltd 0.005 25.0 1,000,000 $12,000,000 ME1 Melodiol Glb Health 0.003 25.0 395,693 $612,527 INV Investsmart Group 0.130 23.8 73,000 $14,980,401 IMM Immutep Ltd 0.363 22.9 13,127,736 $428,520,626 EXT Excite Technology 0.009 21.4 2,218,829 $10,179,692 MDI Middle Island Res 0.017 21.4 815,168 $3,049,956 3DP Pointerra Limited 0.057 21.3 4,454,175 $37,838,609 GLN Galan Lithium Ltd 0.200 21.2 4,077,991 $78,200,759 EVR Ev Resources Ltd 0.006 20.0 2,190,123 $6,606,357 RNX Renegade Exploration 0.012 20.0 5,193,934 $12,800,534 SKS SKS Tech Group Ltd 1.365 19.2 565,006 $128,010,261 GRE Greentechmetals 0.160 18.5 60,938 $11,215,797 DTI DTI Group Ltd 0.013 18.2 250,000 $4,934,066 NGX Ngxlimited 0.165 17.9 104,545 $12,685,658 JNO Juno 0.027 17.4 11,261 $4,184,741 SNT Syntara Limited 0.041 17.1 2,557,583 $41,791,112 M2M Mtmalcolmminesnl 0.035 16.7 1,283,549 $6,749,269 AUK Aumake Limited 0.004 16.7 2,101,573 $5,743,220 FGH Foresta Group 0.007 16.7 1,917,226 $14,132,274
Investsmart (ASX:INV) was having a great Friday, the wealth platform dropping some encouraging numbers in a business update despite tricky conditions.
The company delivered an operating profit for the fourth quarter after rationalising its cost base. Shares have kicked about 25% higher.
In a bold update to forward guidance, SKS Technologies (ASX:SKS) says it expects total annual revenue for FY25 to be approximately $200+ million. That’s on the heels of news that it has been awarded a $90+ million data centre project with Built, for an “international hyperscale data centre” in Melbourne, to be completed by August 2025.
Also up Friday morning was the Aussie biotech Immutep (ASX:IMM), which has dropped some positive results from its Efti drug combination study with Merck & Co’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA, as a first-line treatment for head and neck cancers.
IMM says its Efti combination got the highest recorded positive response for a treatment approach not containing chemotherapy and, based on the “encouraging results and high unmet medical need,” it will discuss the next step forward with regulators.
CEO Matthew Jinks says the boost is based on “continually accelerating level of work on hand and the recently announced $90+ million project for an international hyperscale data centre project in Melbourne”. The stock is up over 20%.
Middle Island Resources (ASX:MDI) was moving Friday on news of the commencement of exploration drilling at the Barkly Copper-Gold Super Project in the Northern Territory.
The company’s exploration holdings in the region covers some 6,918km2, in an area that is considered prospective for large iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) and sediment-hosted Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag (SedH) deposits.
And Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) was up, on the heels of a project update from its 100% owned Hombre Muerto West Phase 1 lithium brine project, where the company says it has more than 2,800t LCE accumulating in ponds, with the project currently about 40% complete.
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS
Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 12 July [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap TAS Tasman Resources Ltd 0.003 -40.0 $28,125 3563346.44 MTL Mantle Minerals Ltd 0.002 -33.3 $498,500 18592337.5 RNE Renu Energy Ltd 0.004 -33.3 $1,242,081 4356804.012 IBG Ironbark Zinc Ltd 0.003 -25.0 $1,001,830 6770290.468 ASR Asra Minerals Ltd 0.0055 -21.4 $1,545,154 14252555.44 HLX Helix Resources 0.002 -20.0 $5,370,000 8160484.208 MEL Metgasco Ltd 0.004 -20.0 $2,527,601 7237933.725 SMM Somerset Minerals 0.004 -20.0 $64,000 5154993.74 VRC Volt Resources Ltd 0.004 -20.0 $252,588 20793390.64 TM1 Terra Metals Limited 0.087 -17.1 $20,288,196 38259762.87 AVE Avecho Biotech Ltd 0.0025 -16.7 $1,831,147 9507891.039 FFF Forbidden Foods 0.011 -15.4 $18,571 2953905.071 PTL Prestal Holdings Ltd 0.14 -15.1 $2,015,520 28124709.35 SMS Starmineralslimited 0.029 -14.7 $279,911 2880575.166 ECG Ecargo Hldg 0.006 -14.3 $410,839 4306750 OVT Ovanti Limited 0.006 -14.3 $14,267,342 8680738.388 VML Vital Metals Limited 0.003 -14.3 $232,574 20632734.33 OIL Optiscan Imaging 0.185 -14.0 $821,525 179598272.6 ALY Alchemy Resource Ltd 0.007 -12.5 $16,643 9424610.048 AQX Alice Queen Ltd 0.007 -12.5 $8,423 9175120.544 H2G Greenhy2 Limited 0.007 -12.5 $2,195,124 4785473.472 HT8 Harris Technology Gl 0.014 -12.5 $40,000 4786167.696 MKL Mighty Kingdom Ltd 0.0035 -12.5 $1,310,501 12863772.14 RFT Rectifier Technolog 0.007 -12.5 $1,310,596 11055871.58 MCA Murray Cod Aust Ltd 0.105 -12.5 $324,995 126898819
ICYMI – AM EDITION
Nothing this morning. You haven’t been good, so you’ll have to wait until this afternoon.
The post ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Who’s been stung with 100 live snakes in his pants this week? appeared first on Stockhead.
