Market Highlights: ASX to rise as commodities rally, Tesla up on big UK deal, and small caps to watch today

Aussie shares to open higher as commodity prices rallied overnight
The market is holding its breath for the latest US CPI report tonight
And here’s the next big thing from Elon Musk

Aussie shares are poised to open higher on Tuesday on the back of higher commodities prices overnight. At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 index futures was pointing up by +0.9%.

In New York, the S&P 500 fell by -0.09%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was up by +0.16%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped by -0.22%.

Treasury yields rose slightly ahead of the US inflation report later today (US time). Economists have forecast a continued overall decline in inflation, led largely by easing energy prices.

Currently, futures price implies an 87% chance of the Fed holds interest rates in December, and is fully priced for a rate cut in July 2024.

To stocks, Boeing rose 4% on news that China is considering ending its freeze on purchases of the 737 Max aircraft. Expectations are high ahead of the Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco where Xi is expected to touch down on Wednesday, US time.

Tesla was also up 4% after EG Group, a British operator of fuel stations, announced that it will acquire Tesla’s electric vehicle ultra-fast chargers. EG currently has 600 chargers across 189 sites, but plans to increase that to 20,000 chargers across about 3,600 sites in the UK.

The biggest mover was  work management platform, monday.com, which rose 10.50% after its Q3 earnings easily beat Wall Street’s estimates.

Crude, gold, and iron prices also rallied overnight with Goldman Sachs predicting increased returns of 21% on commodity prices over the next 12 months, led by energy and industrial metals.

Goldman believes commodities will rise as monetary policy eases, and because traders will be buying commodities to hedge against geopolitical supply risks.

The next big thing from Elon

In 2019, while the mainstream media was calling Elon Musk a fraud and banks were predicting Tesla shares would collapse, famous stock picker Teeka Tiwari was telling everyone it was time to buy Tesla shares.

Anyone who listened to him then would have been 1,500% richer today.

But if you missed on those gains, Tiwari says you now have a second chance.

As you may have heard, Elon Musk has just announced a new AI venture called xAI, with a product called Grok.

Musk said Grok, which is in early testing and not available to the public, would ultimately be released to subscribers of X’s top-tier subscription service, Premium+.

“This could be bigger than Tesla, bigger than SpaceX, and bigger than PayPal,” says Tiwari.

At the moment however, there is no indication of a possible IPO for xAI, so potential investors would need to wait and stay on the sidelines.

In other markets …

Gold price rose +0.5% to US$1,946.20 an ounce.

The benchmark US 10-year treasury yield was up 7bp to 4.70%.

Oil prices gained +1.5%, with Brent trading at US$82.64 a barrel.

Iron ore futures was also up 0.3% to US$130.50 a tonne.

The Aussie dollar lifted +0.30% to US63.76c.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin slipped -1.8% in the last 24 hours to US$36,506.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Atlantic Lithium (ASX:A11)
The African-focused lithium explorer announced that the company’s wholly-owned Ghanaian subsidiary Green Metals has been granted the Bewadze and Senya Beraku prospectng licences in the eastern portion of the company’s Cape Coast Lithium Portfolio in Ghana, which holds the flagship Ewoyaa Lithium Project. The award of the licences provides A11 exclusive access to explore new, undrilled tenure, offering significant potential to further enhance the project. The Bewadze and Senya Beraku licences cover 6.93km2 and 82.11km2, respectively.

Auric Mining (ASX:AWJ)
On Friday, Auric says 1,448 ounces of gold were sold to the Perth Mint for $3,073 per ounce, generating $4,451,573 in revenue. Auric has now received $1,650,000 (GST inc.) in additional surplus funds from its JV partner BML Venture. This brings the total Auric has received from Stage One of the Project to $3,850,000. Stage One mining is now complete with 175,838 dry metric tonnes processed in two campaigns at the Greenfields Mill, Coolgardie.

Altech Batteries (ASX:ATC)
Altech announced that during the finalisation of the Silumina Anodes project Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), it has managed to expand the project’s output by eightfold, increasing the capacity from 15 gigawatt-hours (GWh) to 120 GWh, with no change to plant and equipment. This significant expansion will effectively cater to the long-term demand for silicon-type anodes within the industry.

Mayfield Childcare (ASX:MFD)
Mayfield continues to achieve month-on-month occupancy and childcare revenue growth, with spot occupancy for the core portfolio (excluding centres held for sale) of 78.6% (versus 1H23: 70.6%) as at the week ending 3 November. Spot occupancy of the six centres held for sale also continued to improve, with occupancy of 39.4% (versus 1H23: 36.0%) in the same period.

Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR)
SOR reported that its Energy Ink (renewable energy technology) has achieved unprecedented power density from moisture in the air. The Energy Ink was successfully reengineered to achieve a significant 1000-fold increase in power density in under 12 months. This achievement challenges the conventional notion that moisture is limited to powering small devices. The Energy Ink technology takes moisture from the air – humidity – and converts it into electrical power.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Altech Batteries and Strategic Elements are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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