Good morning everyone, and welcome to 08 January, 2024 \u2013\u00a0an important date on the\u00a0 calendar, as it marks the 22nd Anniversary of US President George Dubya Bush signing a landmark piece of legislation into law \u2013 called No Child Left Behind.<\/p>\n
It turned out, like most things from Dubya\u2019s presidency, to be little more than a sick joke, despite promising sweeping changes to lift the performance of US students, and \u2013 perhaps more importantly\u00a0\u2013 schools across America, by bringing in standardised testing and educational benchmarks.<\/p>\n
Those benchmarks were meant to provide The Powers That Be with enough data to figure out which schools were underperforming, and which ones were just full of students whose passions and career goals involved as little maths, spelling or literature as possible.<\/p>\n
Failure to meet the required goals exposed schools to an escalating series of punishments \u2013 ranging from \u201callowing students to change to a better school if they wanted\u201d, through to having each and every building on campus reduced to pea-sized rubble by a specially trained team of bulldozer-driving former students, whose passions and career goals involved as little maths, spelling or literature as possible.<\/p>\n
Twenty-two years later, and the current state of the US school system has made it abundantly clear that the policy was an abject failure, leaving American school students having to make their way through life with criminally poor education.<\/p>\n
Which isn\u2019t at all surprising, given that there are entire states where the kids are being taught out of textbooks that are replacing things like \u201cverifiable scientific fact\u201d with ideas like \u201cPlanet Earth is only 6,000 years old\u201d.<\/p>\n
That leaves us here in Australia with a lot of heavy lifting to do \u2013 which is why the Stockhead team has been pushing themselves to breaking point to bring you stories like Jess Cummins\u2019 enlightening chat with Shaw and Partners director of corporate finance and WA state manager, Davide Bosio<\/a>, and whatever it is that Christian\u2019s written for the morning, which promises to be informative, brilliant and utterly chaotic, in roughly equal measures.<\/p>\n Plus, down below, there\u2019s all the data and digits that the number nerds seem to love \u2013\u00a0the compilation of which is the highlight of my working day \u2013\u00a0because Rise and Shine just wouldn\u2019t be the same without it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Gold: US$2,045.44 (+0.11%)<\/p>\n Silver: US$23.18 (+0.82%)<\/p>\n Nickel (3mth): US$15,700\/t (-1.95%)<\/p>\n Copper (3mth): US$8,346.00\/t (-0.26%)<\/p>\n Oil (WTI): US$73.81 (+2.26%)<\/p>\n Oil (Brent): US$78.90 (+1.59%)<\/p>\n Iron 62pc Fe: US$141.45\/t (+1.06%)<\/p>\n AUD\/USD: 0.6712 (-0.32%)<\/p>\n Bitcoin: US$44,012.21 (+0.05%)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you were sensible and didn\u2019t turn up at work last week, you missed a thoroughly disappointing run for most of the ASX. So here\u2019s a blow-by-tedious-blow recap of everything you missed, because misery loves company.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n #ASX<\/a> #SmallCaps<\/a> and #IPO<\/a> Weekly Wrap: Orion Equities (ASX:$OEQ) banked a solid second place with +143% for the week. Who topped the #smallcap<\/a> winners list? https:\/\/t.co\/138q3JysAJ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Stockhead (@StockheadAU) January 5, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:<\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/p>\n WordPress Table Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s Small Caps highlights were:<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s big winner was Calima Energy (ASX:CE1)<\/a>, which popped a very healthy 61.5% gain in the AM after it struck a \u2018definitive agreement\u2019 for flogging its Canadian subsidiary Blackspur Oil Corp to Astara Energy, for the princely sum of C$75 million \u2013 roughly 83.3 million of our puny Australian dollarydoos.<\/p>\n Which is, of course, big news \u2013 but the major reason why Calima\u2019s gone absolutely gangbusters is this little nugget in the announcement:<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the Company\u2019s objective to distribute no less than 85% of the funds received from the Blackspur Sale to Calima shareholders in the most tax effective form and the Company will seek an ATO ruling on this matter in a timely fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n Calima is currently trading at $0.105, which comes with a free hit at a slice of just under $71 million, depending on how the ATO decides to rule on the offer.<\/p>\n International bookie Michael Sullivan\u2019s Bluebet (ASX:BBT)<\/a> was up more than 25% this morning, after releasing a boilerplate non-denial of media speculation about a possible merger between it and rival Matt Tripp\u2019s BetR.<\/p>\n \u201cBlueBet is regularly involved in discussions with third parties regarding strategic initiatives, including Betr, aimed at maximising value for its shareholders,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s a very firm \u201cpossibly\u201d, which was enough to get the more punt-friendly investors away from the pokies for a few minutes.<\/p>\n And MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM)<\/a> continued making the most of its recent news about rare earth element (REE) and niobium (Nb) mineralisation over broad intervals in previously untested parts of the Pomme carbonatite complex \u2013 the same news that saw the company shed 27% to $0.07 the day it dropped has since seen the company\u2019s price climb 85.7% to $0.13\u2026 What a time to be alive.<\/p>\n Later in the day, BPH Energy (ASX:BPH)<\/a> saw a flurry of activity for no particular reason that I was able to spot during a slightly-more-than-perfunctory look at the headlines, climbing around 22% to close out the week up by more than 43%.<\/p>\n Havilah Resources (ASX:HAV)<\/a> made a late play for the headlines, dropping an announcement that it has found graphite at its Birksgate prospect in the Curnamona Province of northeastern South Australia, located approximately 50km north-northwest of Kalkaroo.<\/p>\n But\u2026 it looks like it missed the mark, hardly surprising since the announcement came mid-afternoon on a very slow Friday, with results from a single drillhole, with a peak graphite interception of 4.9% over 21m from 36m \u2013 which, in the grand scheme of things, isn\u2019t a show-stopper.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:<\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/p>\n WordPress Table Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Kingsrose Mining (ASX:KRM)<\/a> regarding government approval to commence drilling at the Porsanger Project in Norway<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/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
WHAT GOT YOU TALKING<\/h2>\n
FRIDAY\u2019S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS<\/h2>\n
FRIDAY\u2019S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS<\/h2>\n
TRADING HALTS<\/h2>\n