Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Thursday 14 December – an important date on the sporting calendar, as it was on this day in 1947 that the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was founded in Daytona Beach, Florida, and NASCAR was born.

The whole sorry mess began during a meeting at the Streamline Hotel, where a fella called Bill France Sr had gathered representatives of that branch of motorsport together to discuss the future of stock car racing.

Armed with a burning desire to see cars going very fast while occasionally turning left, Bill France set about turning the rag-tag stock car scene into a more organised endeavour, and in Febuary of the following year, drivers took to the racetrack for the first time under the auspices of the Nascar organisation.

Since that day, the sport has become bafflingly popular, despite its reputation as a favourite among the more “yee-haw!!” elements of American society, and has led to the deaths of 90 drivers.

That tally – 28 main event participants, and 62 in support races – climbs by an additional 15, if you factor in all the drivers who have died of either a heart attack or stroke while racing.

Because ‘Murica.

Still, the sport has continued to grow, with the Daytona 500 considered the most presitigious race for drivers to win – 500 miles around an “oval” track with three corners, with an enormous pile of money waiting for the eventual winner.

When the Daytona 500 was first run in 1959, driver Lee Petty piloted his Chevrolet into the record books, pocketing $19,050 for his trouble. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $196,941.65 in today’s money.

In 2014, Dale Earnhardt Jr won the race, taking home a pay packet of $1,505,363 at the very track that claimed the life of his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr, 13 years before.

It’s been a long journey for Nascar, from its humble beginnings to its current place as essential background noise in the lives of millions of men, as they fistfight their in-laws with their bellies full of piss-weak American beer.

But at its core, it’s a sport for winners – which is definitely something worth celebrating, because Nascar drivers aren’t winners by accident. It takes guts, determination, the ability to think outside the box and take enormous, calculated risks to take home the big bucks.

Same as it does to be a winner on the market – with the added requirement of timely, well-researched information.

Which is why Reuben Adams has taken a closer look at why Tim Goyder’s taken a chunk of a tiny gold explorer called, er, Battery Minerals, and Christian Edwards has turned his withering gaze to his crystal ball, to see what the future holds for interest rates in the USA.

Plus, below you’ll find all the usual digits and data to get your motor rumbling before the market opens today.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,978.53 (-0.05%)

Silver: US$22.68 (-0.40%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,261.30/t (-0.24%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,271.85/t (-0.04%)

Oil (WTI): US$68.45 (-0.45%)

Oil (Brent): US$73.07 (-0.34%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$135.16/t (-0.21%)

AUD/USD: 0.6558 (-0.07%)

Bitcoin: US$40,840.40 (-1.54%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

American West’s huge pile of indium was the talk of the town yesterday – here’s a link to that story, and some other great Resources news, which caught a few eyes yesterday.

American West Metals is surging on #indium news. #ASX #resources https://t.co/FCzarSC8Ms

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) December 13, 2023

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap AMD Arrow Minerals 0.003 50% 81,860,999 $6,047,530 JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.003 50% 5,962,466 $2,176,231 SIG Sigma Health Ltd 1.1 48% 61,513,528 $810,346,458 SCL Schrole Group Ltd 0.215 43% 41,049 $5,393,257 AOA Ausmon Resorces 0.004 33% 500,000 $3,020,998 ENT Enterprise Metals 0.004 33% 1,000,000 $2,398,413 MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.002 33% 6,815,840 $11,677,324 BAT Battery Minerals Ltd 0.08 33% 3,086,996 $8,061,870 HXG Hexagon Energy 0.013 30% 570,836 $5,129,159 AYT Austin Metals Ltd 0.009 29% 153,170 $7,111,123 KNB Koonenberrygold 0.043 26% 1,107,521 $4,071,469 ATS Australis Oil & Gas 0.0155 19% 1,645,377 $16,469,252 5GG Pentanet 0.069 19% 124,756 $21,676,178 BCT Bluechiip Limited 0.019 19% 466,116 $12,593,409 NYR Nyrada Inc. 0.026 18% 8,166 $3,432,191 OAR OAR Resources Ltd 0.0035 17% 54,843 $7,923,183 VAL Valor Resources Ltd 0.0035 17% 3,000,020 $11,620,004 SWP Swoop Holdings Ltd 0.255 16% 207,897 $45,805,966 CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.052 16% 932,570 $14,078,406 WC1 Westcobarmetals 0.091 15% 4,133,134 $9,543,226 VMC Venus Metals Cor Ltd 0.115 15% 288,989 $18,972,868 ALM Alma Metals Ltd 0.008 14% 310,625 $7,798,006 ASR Asra Minerals Ltd 0.008 14% 5,871,033 $11,402,970 SLM Solismineralsltd 0.16 14% 238,117 $10,988,489 PIM Pinnacleminerals 0.17 13% 429,568 $3,836,250

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Yesterday’s Small Caps highlights were:

Leading the market today is Healthcare large capper Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG), which flew on news of a multi-billion dollar merger being put together to allow retail behemoth Chemist Warehouse to backdoor list on the ASX.

The actual news from Sigma was only tangentially related to that merger, as it was all about the completion of a fully underwritten 1 for 1.85 pro-rata accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer to raise approximately $400 million.

Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB) celebrated a win through an announcement featuring two words investors love to read: “visible gold”.

Drilling at the company’s Bellagio gold prospect hit widespread quartz veins below the weathered zone, containing visible gold down dip from the Koonenberry’s previously reported intercept of 10m @ 1.61g/t Au, which – just so we’re clear – did not have any visible gold.

“Below the strongly weathered zone, quartz veins are associated with sericite-silica hydrothermal alteration and trace arsenopyrite over a +125m wide zone,” KNB says.

“This is significant as sericite-silica alteration is a common feature of many orogenic gold systems” – orogenic referring to the crumple zone that makes mountain ranges when two tectonic plates collide.

Another worth a mention in the winner’s list was American West Metals (ASX:AW1), on the rise after revealing it is sitting on the only known domestic Indium resource in the United States.

Indium is one of those rare critical minerals that most people have never heard of, but it’s a pretty important element in the manufacture of things like mobile phones and emojis.

AW1’s indium resource isn’t just unique in terms of its geological placement, but also pretty big – the company is reporting a JORC compliant resource of some 23.8Moz of indium at the site, nestled cheek-by-jowl with an equally impressive total of 119 Koz of gold, 1.3Mt zinc, 49Kt copper and 10Moz silver.

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap TD1 Tali Digital Limited 0.001 -50% 925,232 $6,590,311 AVW Avira Resources Ltd 0.001 -33% 529,000 $3,200,685 VPR Volt Power Group 0.001 -33% 1,117 $16,074,312 BP8 Bph Global Ltd 0.0015 -25% 1,750,000 $3,671,126 KPO Kalina Power Limited 0.003 -25% 125,129 $7,623,685 TKL Traka Resources 0.003 -25% 1,500,332 $3,501,317 MSG Mcs Services Limited 0.015 -25% 150,000 $3,961,993 RCR Rincon 0.028 -22% 5,008,063 $6,395,864 WEC White Energy Company 0.034 -21% 2,397,781 $2,941,466 8CO 8Common Limited 0.051 -20% 30,000 $14,342,074 AUH Austchina Holdings 0.004 -20% 24,090 $10,389,418 GCM Green Critical Min 0.009 -18% 965,100 $12,502,435 TMG Trigg Minerals Ltd 0.009 -18% 30,000 $4,122,318 PLN Pioneer Lithium 0.18 -18% 141,289 $6,253,500 ADY Admiralty Resources. 0.005 -17% 50,000 $7,821,475 IVX Invion Ltd 0.005 -17% 5,002 $38,529,793 NVQ Noviqtech Limited 0.0025 -17% 131,964 $3,928,336 SGC Sacgasco Ltd 0.01 -17% 916,100 $9,282,993 IVR Investigator Res Ltd 0.039 -15% 5,125,238 $66,109,821 AAP Australian Agri Ltd 0.017 -15% 27,551 $6,101,990 NNL Nordicnickellimited 0.145 -15% 123,778 $9,938,201 PAT Patriot Lithium 0.175 -15% 66,239 $14,046,012 LTP Ltr Pharma Limited 0.27 -14% 3,238,252 $22,177,729 NC1 Nicoresourceslimited 0.3 -14% 46,515 $37,275,201 CCZ Castillo Copper Ltd 0.006 -14% 2,334 $9,096,537

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