Local markets are up this morning, after Wall Street had a banger overnight that saw the major US indices lift in a manner most pleasing.
Real Estate is leading the local charge, thanks to huge surges within Centuria Capital (ASX:CNI), Charter Hall (ASX:CHC) and a couple of the other big names in the sector, which have arrived without much in the way of fresh news from the companies to back it up.
I’ll get into more of the specifics shortly, but first a quick story from Tasmania that has really resonated with me today, as I celebrate a return to work following a lengthy health-related absence.
For those of you who have been wondering about my absence, I had to undergo identity affirmation surgery.
For decades, I have felt like an idiot trapped in a human body, and it feels sublime to not only have that confirmed, but also to have the scars to prove that I am, in fact, the moron I have always felt I was meant to be.
However, coming back to work has turned out to be tough – but given that I work from home anyway, I shouldn’t really complain, especially in light of the plight of those who actually have to go somewhere to earn their handful of kauri shells and bottle tops each week.
Just yesterday, it was a particularly rough morning for Tasmanian woman Amber Harris, who was forced to call work and explain that she couldn’t possibly get to the office, because a 600kg seal had parked her in.
Neal the Seal stops local woman from going to work, by being a fat bastard in front of her car. Pic: Supplied (Amber Harris)
Ms Harris woke yesterday morning to find that local aquatic identity Neal the Seal was in her front yard, and making it very difficult for her to get to her car – which, as far as “I can’t possibly make it into the office today” stories go, is a beauty.
Not quite as good as the time my mate Andy rang work to complain that he’d had a dodgy Indian feed the night before, and couldn’t come to work because he had “unstoppable gonorrhoea”, but it’s close.
TO MARKETS
As mentioned, local markets are moving in the right direction today, and a look over the sectors at midday shows that just about everything is doing well, except for the Energy sector which is struggling to shift from flat.
Up the pointy end, the Real Estate sector is providing plenty of momentum to lead the market on more than a 4.2% gain, thanks largely to sector heavyweights Centuria Capital (+9.5%), Charter Hall (+7.5%) and HMC Capital (+7.3%) making serious gains.
InfoTech is also enjoying a morning in the sun – indeed, the XTX All Ords Tech index is well out in front of everyone else (+2.5%), with one notable exception.
The XGD All Ords Gold Index is dominating the market the ‘official’ indices this morning, up 3.5% and in line with a sudden spike in gold prices this morning, which saw the precious metal move from around US$1946 to US$1968 in the space of about an hour, right around the time local markets opened in Oz.
Up the fancy end of town, Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) has surged today to add nearly 7.7%, with the likes of Allkem (ASX:AKE) (+7.25%) and Nufarm (ASX:NUF) (+9.89%) also piling on significant upward movement as well.
On the wrong side of things this morning, though, is big Energy player Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR), which dumped more than 10.4% in early trade.
Karoon’s precipitous drop sparked a trading pause just 29 minutes into the session, which became a full-blown trading halt 40 minutes later, with the company providing a tantalising clue as to why its stock has suddenly turned toxic.
“The trading halt is requested pending an announcement by Karoon in relation to a potential transaction,” the trading halt request reads.
I’ll report back if I hear anything.
NOT THE ASX
Overnight, Wall Street did rather well, after soft CPI data put some wind in the sails of US investors.
In New York, the S&P 500 surged by +1.91%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was up by +1.43%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose by +2.37%.
Earlybird Eddy (to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for minding a chunk of my workload while I was away…) reports that US stocks “rallied after the US inflation increased by 3.2% year-on-year in October, down from the 3.7% figure in September. The figure however was flat month on month.”
Prices that fell included airfares, which dropped 13.2% drop YoY, along with rental and used cars.
“The surprisingly cool CPI solidifies our expectations that the Fed Reserve is done with hiking rates this year and will hold them steady in December,” said de Vere’s Nigel Green.
The big news from all of that was that US Bond yields collapsed after the report, with the benchmark US 10-year treasury yield crashing by 18bp.
In individual US stock news, Nvidia rose 2% and is on track to hit a new high after releasing the new H200 AI chip.
Tesla climbed more than 6% after announcing that it will hike prices in China, and Snap Inc rose 7% after reaching a deal with Amazon to let people buy Amazon products directly from ads on the Snapchat app.
Falling sharply, though, was luxury hybrid electric vehicle maker Fisker, down 19% after weaker than expected Q3 numbers.
In Japan, the Nikkei is up 2.01% on news that a 50-year-old resident of the town of Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture has admitted to being behind a string of bizarre break-ins.
Local authorities say the man, whose name has not been released, has admitted to letting himself into the homes of at least three women in his apartment block, whereupon he raided the female occupants’ undies drawer and did their laundry.
Upon returning home, the women were shocked to find that all of their lingerie had been carefully washed and hung up to dry – a crime that is mostly incredibly disturbing, but at least has the redeeming feature of being somewhat helpful.
If anyone with a similar fetish feels like popping round to my place to do my laundry for me, drop me an email and I’ll tell you where I live. BYO Hazmat suit.
In China, Shanghai markets are flat right now, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng is up 2.5% in early trade.
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 15 November [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
In the Land of Local Small Caps, the frontrunner today is Odessa Minerals (ASX:ODE), with a 43.7% spike on news that the company has defined some standout drilling targets at its Yinnetharra Lithium Project at Lockier Range in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
Recent assays from the project included some 248 soil samples boasting Li2O > 100ppm, and highlighted two potentially significant anomalies at the site.
The first is a 4km x 2km northwest-trending Li-Cs-Ta-Be-Rb-Bi anomaly at Robinson Bore coincident to the 16,500m of sub-cropping fractionated pegmatites, while the second is a 2.7km x 2km coherent Li-Cs-Ta-Be anomaly at the Eastern Pegmatite Field adjacent to the fertile Thirty Three Supersuite granite.
In second place, Findi (ASX:FND) is boasting a mammoth 43% spike this morning after announcing to the market that the company’s Indian subsidiary, Transaction Solutions International, has raised $37.6 million via placement ahead of its Indian IPO this week.
That money has come via leading Indian investment group, Piramal Alternatives, by way of Compulsory Convertible Debentures, which are compulsorily convertible to equity at IPO.
“The entry equity valuation is based on an FY23 EBITDA multiple and reflects a pre-IPO market capitalisation of $153.0 million (post money $190.6 million) ahead of TSI India’s intended listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange,” Findi says.
If you want to know exactly what Findi does, Fast Eddy is there for you. He wrote about it just this morning.
Titanium Sands (ASX:TSL) and Moho Resources (ASX:MOH) are both climbing well on no particular news this morning, while Atlantic Lithium (ASX:A11) has posted a 30% gain after the company reported that it has rejected another takeover bid by its major shareholder Assore.
Assore had presented a conditional and non-binding offer to acquire all of the shares in A11 that it does not already own, pursuant to a scheme of arrangement, at an offer price equal to A$0.63 per share.
But Atlantic has declined the offer, and reports that it has subsequently been withdrawn.
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS
Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 15 November [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
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