The ASX benchmark ends the day circa +0.9pc higher<\/p>\n
Sectors led by Materials and Energy as gold re-tops US$2,000\/oz<\/p>\n
Small caps led by CF1, backed up by a slew of micro Materials players<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local markets have extended the week\u2019s treasure hunt as resources stocks lifted on Friday, after gains overnight on Wall Street still giddy at the promise of interest rate cuts.<\/p>\n
At 4.15pm on Friday December 13, the S&P\/ASX 200 (XJO) index was up 65 points, or +0.88%.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Via Google<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The benchmark Aussie market has closed the week +3.75% higher.<\/p>\n From the morning bell on Friday, traders in Sydney got right behind the majors leading both mining and energy sectors.<\/p>\n Both were up close to 2%.<\/p>\n The ASX iron ore heavyweights BHP (ASX:BHP)<\/strong><\/a>, Fortescue (ASX:FMG)<\/strong><\/a>, and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO)<\/strong><\/a> all climbed in and around +2%<\/p>\n Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS)<\/strong><\/a> and Santos (ASX:STO)<\/strong><\/a> both enjoyed strong support as well.<\/p>\n IGO (ASX:IGO)<\/strong><\/a> and Allkem (ASX:AKE)<\/strong><\/a> added close to 5% in the lithium sector.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Via MarketIndex<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Arounnd the \u2018hood\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Asian-Pacific equity markets enjoyed Friday, tracking US gains.<\/p>\n It also helped that China\u2019s industrial output rose at the fastest monthly pace in about 24 months.<\/p>\n Equities climbed in Japan, South Korea, Hongkers and China.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Oil\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Unless they find more US inventories this arvo, oil \u2013 WTI (West Texas Intermediate) specifically \u2013 is probably going to log its first weekly gain in two months.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Via TradingEconomics<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier in the week, the US Fed turned markets upside down by flagging near-future rate cuts, including the muscular run of the US\u00a0 dollar and the anemic outlook for growth stocks and risk assets.<\/p>\n A weak greenback also makes USD-bought global commodities cheaper for everyone else \u2013 especially China.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the IEA (International Energy Agency) says global oil demand will rise by 1.1mn barrels a day next year, up a pretty profound 130K bpd from earlier estimates.<\/p>\n OPEC+ previously projected a 2.2 million bpd global oil demand growth for next year.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And damned if we\u2019re not still watching gold\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The price of Gold held above US$2,030 an ounce on Friday and was set to gain about 1.5% this week, underpinned by the same factors which have seen everything else enjoy the latter half of the week and wot made the greenback and US Treasury yields dive.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And now here\u2019s a 50-year Gold chart<\/strong><\/p>\n Via MarketIndex<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And in the US\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Well, what happened this week was simple \u2013 the Fed held interest rates steady and flagged x3 actual rate cuts for next year.<\/p>\n Overnight the S&P 500 found +0.3%, the Dow Jones +0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite +0.2%.<\/p>\n Inflation is falling is the takeaway from Fed Chair J.Powell who also says the time for cutting the cost of money is coming \u201cinto view.\u201d<\/p>\n In New York, analysts are pricing in a 75% chance the Fed starts that in March.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, some robust US retail sales and falling jobless claims had no impact on sentiment<\/p>\n Even both the European Central Bank (ECB) and the BoE (Bank of England) paused this week, but also said they\u2019re likely to hold at higher for longer as long and as high as required till inflation is dead, dead, dead.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n At 4pm in Sydney, Futures tied to the 3 major US indices were ahead of the Friday open in New York:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Via Fox<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/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 \u00a0<\/p>\n The Small Caps market was in a rather vague mood on Friday, with a number of the chart leaders at various stages of the day occupying senior positions without fresh news to explain why they were there.<\/p>\n That includes Complii Fintech Solutions (ASX:CF1)<\/span><\/a> , which soared 40% post-lunch, with the only recent news to the ASX being the disbursement of performance-related shares to three directors, totalling 26 million shares (about $640,000 worth when issued) a few days prior.<\/p>\n Similarly, Next Science (ASX:NXS)<\/span><\/a> took off after lunch, racing through a 28% gain with a near-tenfold increase in trading volume over the 4-week average, again on no fresh news.<\/p>\n Cauldron Energy (ASX:CXU)<\/a><\/span> enjoyed a solid 24% boost in trading price on friday afternoon, with its most recent announcement already two days old \u2013 a scoping study from Cauldron\u2019s Bennet Well uranium deposit, part of the company\u2019s Yanrey Uranium Project which encompasses a total area of 1,270km2 about 100km south of the town of Onslow in Western Australia.<\/p>\n Cauldron says that Bennett Well is home to a JORC compliant 30.9 million pounds (about 14,000t) of contained uranium oxide, Indicated plus Inferred Mineral Resource of 38.9 million tonnes grading 360ppm eU3O8.<\/p>\n Microcapper Javelin Minerals (ASX:JAV)<\/span><\/a>, which is showing a 50% bump according to the steady stream of data pouring out of the ASX computers.<\/p>\n The last piece of information coming directly from Javelin was an entitlement offer prospectus which arrived with very little fanfare from the company on Tuesday, casually announcing that the company is offering a cheeky 1,000,000,000 new shares (and an equally enormous number of attaching options) to existing shareholders at $0.001 a pop.<\/p>\n Both Icon Energy (ASX:ICN)<\/span><\/a> and Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML)<\/span><\/a> have posted sizeable percentage gains this morning, in the absence of any market-shifting news.<\/p>\n Global Uranium (ASX:GUE) is up more than 26%, proving that the company name is something of a misnomer as the win has come via news that the company\u2019s exploration licence for the Enmore gold project in New South Wales has been extended for six years.<\/p>\n If the name is unfamiliar to you, you\u2019re not alone \u2013 it was recently rebadged from Okapi Resources (ASX:OKR)<\/span><\/a> .<\/p>\n And Gold Mountain (ASX:GMN)<\/span><\/a> is climbing today, most likely on the back of two announcements to the market yesterday.<\/p>\n The first was a company update, outlining where things are at with Gold Mountain\u2019s activities in Brazil, where it has secured 57 tenements at the application stage in the Jequi\u00e9 Block of the Sao Francisco craton, cheek-by-jowl with Brazilian Rare Earths.<\/p>\n The company also announced yesterday that it has discovered anomalous lithium concentrations within stream sediment samples at its Juremal project, which is also in Brazil.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/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 \u00a0<\/p>\n Atlantic Lithium (ASX:A11)<\/a><\/span> \u2013 pending an announcement to the market regarding a proposed capital raising.<\/p>\n GBM Resources (ASX:GBZ)<\/a><\/span> \u2013 pending the release of an announcement regarding a proposed capital raising.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post Closing Bell: ASX wins again, get\u2019s the girl and is generally cool and triumphant<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASX Sectors on Friday<\/h2>\n
TODAY\u2019S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS<\/h2>\n
TODAY\u2019S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS<\/h2>\n
TRADING HALTS<\/h2>\n