Good morning everyone, and welcome to 05 January, 2024 \u2013\u00a0an important date on the literary calendar as it marks the 71st anniversary of the inaugural public performance of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett\u2019s interminable waste of everybody\u2019s time, Waiting for Godot.<\/p>\n
For those of you who slept through high school English, the play \u2013\u00a0at a very superficial surface level \u2013\u00a0centres on two men, waiting in a park for someone called Godot.<\/p>\n
The two men are Vladimir and Estragon \u2013 the latter of which sounds more like a topical cream for women going through The Change of Life than an actual name \u2013\u00a0and the play centres on them sitting about, waiting for the titular Godot who (spoiler alert) never shows up.<\/p>\n
The initial public performance took place in the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Babylone in Paris, and while no one\u2019s quite sure whether it was the quality of the French translation or the fact that the play genuinely feels like it drags on forever while absolutely nothing happens, it certainly had an effect on early audiences.<\/p>\n
Quite a number of Parisian audience members reportedly showed how much they enjoyed the production, making timely use of the half-time intermission by leaving the building entirely to go somewhere more entertaining.<\/p>\n
On at least one occasion, the French production was halted by an all-in brawl between audience members who thought it was, as Beckett himself might say, \u201cutter gobshite\u201d and those who vehemently disagreed.<\/p>\n
It debuted, in English, in London two years later to a similar reception, mot notable for the \u201copen hostility\u201d and \u201cwaves of audible yawning\u201d among audience members before they, too, stormed the exits at half time.<\/p>\n
Still, bafflingly, it remains a mainstay of pompous theatre actors and even pompouser audiences, no doubt because it is as much an act of intellectual defiance to enjoy it, as it is an act of mental endurance to sit through the entire thing without punching whoever you\u2019re sitting next to.<\/p>\n
If you haven\u2019t seen it, don\u2019t. If you want to see it, let me save you a couple of potentially violent hours by sharing a whittled-down and vastly superior version of the play, as performed by two Sesame Street puppets \u2013 the effervescent Grover and the perennially suicidal Telly Monster \u2013 in Monsterpiece Theatre\u2019s Waiting for Elmo.<\/p>\n
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And now that I\u2019ve quite probably completely derailed your thought processes and mental equilibrium for the morning, let\u2019s crack on with some far more important stories\u2026 such as Bevis Yeo\u2019s inaugural look at what\u2019s cooking in oil and gas for 2024<\/a>, and Nadine McGrath\u2019s first chance to to have a look at which directors are putting their own skin in the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n Plus, down below, there\u2019s all the data and digits that the number nerds seem to love, because Rise and Shine just wouldn\u2019t be the same without it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Gold: US$2,044.10 (+0.16%)<\/p>\n Silver: US$23.01 (+0.20%)<\/p>\n Nickel (3mth): US$16,209.10\/t (-0.78%)<\/p>\n Copper (3mth): US$8,418.35\/t (-0.26%)<\/p>\n Oil (WTI): US$73.155 (+0.61%)<\/p>\n Oil (Brent): US$78.739 (+0.64%)<\/p>\n Iron 62pc Fe: US$144.16\/t (-0.05%)<\/p>\n AUD\/USD: 0.6740 (+0.07%)<\/p>\n Bitcoin: US$43,218.70<\/span> (+0.85%)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Today\u2019s best performing small cap stocks:<\/strong><\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/em><\/p>\n WordPress Table Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Out in front of Small Caps land early was Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO)<\/span><\/a>, which \u2013 it seems \u2013 is unable to stop delivering great news, backing up December\u2019s big announcement with a fresh one about the company delineating a \u201clarge (1.7km x 0.5km footprint) copper-gold porphyry system\u201d at its La Florida Prospect, inside the Fortuna Project in Chile.<\/p>\n Culpeo says that surface sampling results have returned grades up to 3.96% Cu and 2.61g\/t Au, with mineralisation styles that are analogous to the company\u2019s Lana Corina Prospect, which itself returned drill intersections of 257m @ 1.10% Cu Eq and 169m @ 1.21% CuEq.<\/p>\n Orion Equities (ASX:OEQ)<\/a><\/span> was continuing its efforts to make hay off the back of Wednesday\u2019s announcement that its subsidiary CXM Pty Ltd stands to pocket about $5 million in a royalty payment from Miracle Iron Holdings. That\u2019s after Miracle moved to acquire the Paulsens East Iron Ore Project located in the Pilbara, Western Australia from Strike Resources (ASX:SRK)<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n And Wednesday\u2019s high-flyer, Pan Asia Metals (ASX:PAM)<\/span><\/a>, is also continuing its blistering run, up another 15.8% on recent news that it is set to acquire a 100% interest in the massive Tama Atacama Chilean lithium brine asset, which comprises some 1,200km2 of \u201cTier 1\u201d ground.<\/p>\n MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM)<\/a><\/span> made a remarkable recovery from Wednesday\u2019s form slump, which saw it shed 23% of the back of news that drilling results \u201cfurther confirm rare earth element (REE) and niobium (Nb) mineralisation over broad intervals in previously untested parts of the Pomme carbonatite complex\u201d.<\/p>\n MTM took off at a brisk pace around 2:00pm, closing out the day 50% better off at $0.105 per share.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Today\u2019s worst performing small cap stocks:<\/strong><\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/em><\/p>\n WordPress Table Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Nope. Day 2 of no halting. If this keeps up, we\u2019re going to have to fire the work experience kid. I don\u2019t care who<\/em> his uncle is\u2026 If there\u2019s no halt to all this no halting, he can go back to university to finish his degree.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COMMODITY\/FOREX\/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES<\/h2>\n
ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS<\/h2>\n
ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS<\/h2>\n
TRADING HALTS<\/h2>\n