The ASX benchmark has ended Friday lower, but the week higher
\n11 of 11 sectors in the rouge<\/p>\n
Small caps led by mighty diggers Mitre, Dalaroo and Perpetual Resources\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local markets have had a sullen run of it on Friday, after US bond yields rose and tech stocks fell overnight.<\/p>\n
Oil prices also crashed on an unhappy outcome at the headline OPEC+ meeting.<\/p>\n
At match-out on Friday December 1, the S&P\/ASX 200 (XJO) index was down 14 points, or -0.20%:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Via Google<\/p>\n Via MarketIndex<\/em><\/p>\n Around the traps, regional equity markets are all doing it tough on Friday.<\/p>\n One of the problems is the Caixin survey out of China, which has November Chinese manufacturing kicking absolute goals for factory activity.<\/p>\n That flies right in the face of official data released yesterday which detailed a second straight month of contraction.<\/p>\n The Caixin China General Manufacturing PMI rose to 50.7 last month, up from 49.5 in October, smacking market forecasts of 49.8 and pointing to the highest reading since August.<\/p>\n The Caixin read, miraculously, has both output and buying levels returning to growth, suggesting that Beijing\u2019s mild recent efforts to excite the local economy are coming good \u2013 a direct contradiction of the official numbers out of the bureau of stats.<\/p>\n Caixin \u2013 a formerly independent Chinese financial media organisation, but now wholly state-run, also reports that business sentiment has suddenly lifted to a four-month peak.<\/p>\n The Friday performance of national equity markets of China\u2019s satellite economies suggests the Caixin read is having trouble finding buyers, with most Asian markets lower near 4pm in Sydney.<\/p>\n After responding positively to Thursday\u2019s official PMI\u2019s, which suggested that Beijing may have to initiate further stimulus to promote activity, the ASX Materials sector has fallen significantly .<\/p>\n At home, broad-based selling has followed up Thursday\u2019s surprise bonanza of gains. The IT sector is coming in for some heavy treatment, although at 3.45pm, the sector\u2019s strong midweek performance still leaves it way out ahead and likely to end the last week of November \u2013 the strongest month of the year for the ASX benchmark \u2013 well ahead by more than +2%.<\/p>\n Elsewhere the Energy sector remains a weak point. A furtive OPEC+ has offered traders little to go on after the overnight conclusion of possibly the year\u2019s most important meeting for the oil-producing cartel.<\/p>\n Members have reportedly agreed to trim output, except for Angola, which has come out in defiance of the group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia.<\/p>\n West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices began today\u2019s session in Sydney having tumbled almost 2.5% overnight to nearer US$75.00.<\/p>\n Beach Energy (ASX:BPT)<\/strong><\/a>, Santos (ASX:STO)<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS)<\/strong><\/a> are all in the oil firing line.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in larger cap company news, Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG)<\/strong><\/a> is facing Friday with impressive resilience.<\/p>\n FMG is the most China exposed of the big three iron ore miners, while the brokers over at Jeffries took the stick to the stock and downgraded its rating from Buy to Hold, culling the target price to $23.90 at the same time.<\/p>\n The not as big as other Australians hasn\u2019t looked too bothered by any of it:<\/p>\n Via Google<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n At 3.45pm on Friday all 11 sectors were trading in the red with IT leading the bleeding.<\/p>\n Via MarketIndex<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And we\u2019re surely still watching gold\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The price of gold is up around +0.2% at around US$2,040 an ounce late on Friday.<\/p>\n The safe haven looks comfortable heading into a third consecutive weekly rise, as markets worried about what\u2019s next in the Middle East, with Israel and Hamas looking bound to restart hostilities following a near week-long pause and exchange of hostages. A weak US dollar and softer-than-expected US inflation data is also doing the precious metal favours.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Via TradingEconomics<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And US markets as well\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Well. America\u2019s Mega Tech stocks took the lead in a memorable November Wall Street comeback.<\/p>\n The Dow Jones \u2013 which rose overnight to new 2023 highs \u2013 managed to snap its three-month losing streak to close November +8.9% higher.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 was right alongside, higher by +0.4 overnight and ahead +8.9% for the month.<\/p>\n Falling -0.2% overnight, the tech heavy Nasdaq cleaned up in November to the tune of +10.7%.<\/p>\n On the economic front, US personal spending moderated while the latest jobless claims hit a two-year high.<\/p>\n Wall Street tonight will be all over the US Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, who does some Fedspeak, somewhere, but I forget.<\/p>\n Ahead of Friday trade in New York US Futures were mixed:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Via Fox<\/p>\n Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:<\/strong><\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/em><\/p>\n WordPress Tables Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n Leading Friday by default is Hubify (ASX:HFY)<\/strong><\/a>, which has jumped about +40% on Friday, after mopping up some loose shares.<\/p>\n Up around 40% and deservingly so late on Friday is Mitre Mining (ASX:MMC)<\/strong><\/a>, which has grabbed for itself the rather high-grade Cerro Bayo silver and gold project in Chile.<\/p>\n Cerro Bayo was operating as recently as October last year, placed onto care and maintenance after 15 years, 45Moz of silver and 650,000oz of gold production.<\/p>\n But it still has 3.82Mt of ore at a grade of 206g\/t for some 24.7Moz of silver equivalent and a string of high grade hits outside its resource including a heroic 5.5m at 868g\/t Ag and 23.5g\/t Au.]<\/p>\n Another digger up an even third on Friday is Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC)<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n According to resident rock genius, Our Josh Chiat<\/a>, the $7.5 million capped Perpetual has made its second visit to the Itinga prospect in the lithium valley region for Brazil\u2019s Minas Gerais state.<\/p>\n Josh says PEC is prepping investors for imminent rock chip assay results, with geochemical sampling and in-field XRF analysis also due to begin soon after a first field trip over a month ago.<\/p>\n The ground is located around 15km from major lithium projects including those held by TSX-listed Brazilian lithium giant Sigma Lithium.<\/p>\n And Dalaroo Metals (ASX:DAL)<\/strong><\/a> has picked up $500,000 in cash and $500,000 in shares on\u00a0Delta Lithium\u2019s (ASX:DLI)<\/a> tightly held register after inking a deal to sell the lithium, caesium and tantalum rights at its Lyons River project in WA\u2019s emerging Gascoyne province.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the $3.3 million market capped DAL\u2019s been focused on finding more of the high grade gold it\u2019s struck at Goodbody just a few clicks down the road from DLI\u2019s Yinnetharra discovery.<\/p>\n Here are the day\u2019s worst performing ASX small cap stocks:<\/strong><\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/em><\/p>\n WordPress Tables Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Compumedics (ASX:CMP)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending an announcement regarding correspondece from the FDA regarding its Somfit sleep product<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post Closing Bell: A Friday fizzer for Aussie markets as energy and tech stocks drag<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the numbers:\u00a0 ASX200<\/h2>\n
ASX Sectors On Friday<\/span><\/h2>\n\n
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TODAY\u2019S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS<\/h2>\n
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TODAY\u2019S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS<\/h2>\n
TRADING HALTS<\/h2>\n