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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 09 January, 2024 – an important date in the history of optometry, as it was on this day in 1493 that famed explorer Christopher Columbus saw “three mermaids” in the waters off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

So excited was the Italian, that he made a note of the sighting in his diary, although it was a rather muted entry as Columbus thought that the mermaids he’d spotted were “not half as beautiful as they are painted” – the earliest recorded example of a man having a strop over the fact that his Tinder date looks nothing at all like her profile pics.

That’s because they were almost definitely manatees, and not a cruel prank played by the gods to deposit naked ladies in the waters of the world to titillate sailors, but with half their good bits missing.

And even taking into account that mid-1400s beauty standards tended more toward the “Reubenesque”– tall, beardy and definitely not someone to get into a scrap with up the pub – Columbus’ disappointment at how unsexy the mermaids were will forever be amusing.

Just picture the range of emotions running across his face – excitement, then confusion, followed by outrage before settling into resigned disappointment – and suddenly Sebastiano del Piombo’s portrait of Columbus begins to make sense.

Christopher Columbus, pictured here sad because of his tiny head, massive hands and inability to bed a manatee after six lonely months at sea.

However, the mystery of whether del Piombo’s sense of perspective was fundamentally broken, or if Columbus really did have gigantic hands (or that his head was genuinely just the size of a grape) remains.

Either way, 531 years ago – after six months at sea – the explorer’s soul-shattering disappointment at finally spotting actual mermaids and realising that they were too ugly to bonk was documented, and it’s still one of the funniest stories I know.

Speaking of great stories, the team here has been hard at work bringing you some fantastic Tales of ASX Wonder, including Eddy Sunarto’s deep dive into what the market’s analysts are saying, and Reuben’s look at Firefly, which – at this precise moment in time – remains shrouded in mystery from where I’m sitting.

Plus, down below, there’s all the data and digits that the number nerds seem to love, because Rise and Shine would be significantly quicker to write if they weren’t included, and around here we earn our handful of kauri shells each day.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,027.91 (-0.86%)

Silver: US$23.09 (-0.27%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,372/t (+1.92%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,463/t (-0.04%)

Oil (WTI): US$70.79 (-4.11%)

Oil (Brent): US$76.39 (-3.01%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$140.87/t (-0.41%)

AUD/USD: 0.6712 (+0.02%)

Bitcoin: US$47,131 (+6.5%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Who doesn’t love a good news story, especially one that involves shiny gold and a set of suspiciously luscious green lips?

One of the #ASX’s top performing #gold producers Emerald Resources (ASX:$EMR) remains on track to hit FY24 guidance of 100,000oz at US$780-US$850/oz all in sustaining costs. https://t.co/YNOqK65Vou

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) January 8, 2024

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 ME1 Melodiol Glb Health 0.002 100% 3,085,952 $4,728,824 CPO Culpeominerals 0.096 68% 60,223,777 $6,644,055 RGS Regeneus Ltd 0.005 67% 2,822,115 $919,311 AMD Arrow Minerals 0.008 60% 116,924,100 $17,368,825 GLA Gladiator Resources 0.027 42% 6,630,901 $11,538,640 NVQ Noviqtech Limited 0.004 33% 3,495,110 $3,928,336 MDR Medadvisor Limited 0.3 33% 526,793 $123,059,210 YRL Yandal Resources 0.115 26% 628,913 $21,360,080 MAT Matsa Resources 0.035 25% 1,828,983 $13,402,873 OAU Ora Gold Limited 0.0075 25% 30,003,839 $34,136,928 DOU Douugh Limited 0.005 25% 408,496 $4,328,276 NES Nelson Resources. 0.005 25% 2,153,447 $2,454,377 BMG BMG Resources Ltd 0.011 22% 2,198,592 $5,704,174 SLM Solismineralsltd 0.175 21% 606,906 $11,368,102 RIL Redivium Limited 0.006 20% 415,157 $13,654,274 ACR Acrux Limited 0.06 18% 726,113 $14,771,180 KBC Keybridge Capital 0.049 17% 24,311 $8,708,189 EEL Enrg Elements Ltd 0.007 17% 180,453 $6,059,790 MHC Manhattan Corp Ltd 0.0035 17% 452,580 $8,810,939 OEQ Orion Equities 0.19 15% 38,667 $2,582,123 FFG Fatfish Group 0.032 14% 25,209,161 $38,926,711 FDR Finder 0.09 14% 106,931 $5,925,000 OZZ OZZ Resources 0.093 13% 103,668 $7,587,470 GUE Global Uranium 0.11 13% 945,500 $20,584,270 GPR Geopacific Resources 0.017 13% 135,524 $12,325,761

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Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO) continued its climb on last week’s news of a decent-looking copper-gold porphyry rock-sampling report from its La Florida Prospect, in the Fortuna Project in Chile.

In fact, by the looks of things, almost the entire winners list yesterday was made up of companies being driven by external forces such as commodity prices, or their gains are simply carry-overs from newsworthy announcements that hit the market last week.

Nova Eye Medical (ASX:EYE) – which also had happy news out last week – was riding that momentum, with a helpful boost this morning from news that the company has managed to grow its US sales revenue up 65% to US$5.1 million for the six months ended 31 December 2023, compared to the same period last year.

And then, like magic at 12pm, Kali Metals (ASX:KM1) made its market debut, and finished its first session on the bourse with a 78% gain under its belt and, I’m guessing, no shortage of high-fives around the table in the boardroom.

By the time the Closing Bell rang, the rest of the afternoon’s success stories looked a lot like the morning’s – big moves on little news from the likes of Gladiator Resources (ASX:GLA), Yandal Resources (ASX:YRL), Matsa Resources (ASX:MAT) and BMG Resources (ASX:BMG), as investors went bananas piling into a swathe of junior goldies, despite the precious metal dipping 0.5% throughout the day.

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 MRQ Mrg Metals Limited 0.002 -33% 3,141,700 $7,414,023 TKL Traka Resources 0.002 -33% 240,000 $2,625,988 1AG Alterra Limited 0.006 -25% 380,000 $6,657,177 BP8 Bph Global Ltd 0.0015 -25% 18,986 $3,671,126 CRB Carbine Resources 0.006 -25% 955,494 $4,413,902 FAU First Au Ltd 0.003 -25% 625,145 $6,647,973 SIS Simble Solutions 0.003 -25% 2,000 $2,411,803 MEG Megado Minerals Ltd 0.024 -23% 371,776 $7,888,122 NPM Newpeak Metals 0.018 -22% 179,021 $2,298,890 KZR Kalamazoo Resources 0.1225 -21% 2,206,676 $26,562,268 88E 88 Energy Ltd 0.004 -20% 7,935,074 $123,204,013 CHK Cohiba Min Ltd 0.002 -20% 4,558 $6,325,575 MEL Metgasco Ltd 0.008 -20% 163,318 $10,638,867 RAS Ragusa Minerals Ltd 0.032 -20% 242,026 $5,703,951 MHK Metalhawk. 0.105 -19% 145,475 $12,923,878 DYM Dynamicmetalslimited 0.155 -18% 29,999 $6,650,000 CXO Core Lithium 0.19 -17% 56,493,719 $491,495,175 DLI Delta Lithium 0.35 -17% 4,262,276 $298,803,915 GBZ GBM Rsources Ltd 0.0075 -17% 2,414,500 $6,582,896 NRX Noronex Limited 0.01 -17% 2,085,322 $4,539,621 GL1 Globallith 0.94 -16% 1,411,333 $291,497,135 BKG Booktopia Group 0.053 -16% 343,849 $14,376,921 LLI Loyal Lithium Ltd 0.38 -16% 409,995 $37,479,294 BBT Bluebet Holdings Ltd 0.22 -15% 760,981 $52,285,683 BPH BPH Energy Ltd 0.058 -15% 27,700,277 $69,763,032

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