Local markets are doing something this morning. At 10.30am, it was a whole lotta nuthin, though \u2013\u00a0despite what some would call a \u201cmodest rise\u201d when it first woke up at 10am, it didn\u2019t last long or elicit much more of a response from investors than a \u201chmph \u2013 I guess it\u2019s still working\u201d before everyone lost interest and it wilted again.<\/p>\n
Just like me when I wake up of a morning\u2026 being 50 sucks.<\/p>\n
Anyway \u2013 I\u2019ll get into the details of what\u2019s happening once I\u2019ve had a chance to dig through all the exciting announcements and data and charts\u2026 but before I do, there\u2019s a news story that caught my eye this morning that I want to tug on your coat about, first.<\/p>\n
The owner of the world\u2019s most mysterious smile, The Mona Lisa, has been attacked in Paris.<\/p>\n
Yes, again\u2026 this time, she\u2019s been showered in tomato soup (cold, I\u2019m assuming, so it\u2019s safe to assume some kind of gazpacho maybe \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s hard to tell without tasting it, though) by activists, who seem unhappy about food, or something.<\/p>\n
That bit\u2019s also kinda hard to tell \u2013 but according to people who speak French, the protesters are from a group called \u201cRiposte Alimentaire\u201d \u2013\u00a0Food Response \u2013 so they very cleverly attacked a painting with soup, to get us all thinking about protecting the environment and food security.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
ALERTE \u2013 Des militantes pour le climat jettent de la soupe sur le tableau de La Joconde au mus\u00e9e du Louvre. @CLPRESSFR<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Aa7gavRRc4<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 CLPRESS \/ Agence de presse (@CLPRESSFR) January 28, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time the Mona Lisa has been attacked in the name of activism, and it remains unclear precisely what it is that the Mona Lisa has done to upset so many people.<\/p>\n But she\u2019s been targeted by protestors of different flavours for years, to the point where Da Vinci\u2019s sly-smiling lady friend is now forced to live in virtual solitary confinement, hemmed in by shatter-proof glass like Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.<\/p>\n It was only a couple of years ago that the Mona Lisa was viciously attacked with a piece of cake, by a fella dressed as a lady in a wheelchair who managed to sneak a slab of moist gateau past security.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people who are destroying the Earth,\u201d the man said, after smearing dessert over the security glass.\u00a0\u201cAll artists, think about the Earth. That\u2019s why I did this. Think of the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n The rest of you, please\u2026 think of the cake.<\/p>\n Prior to that, the Mona Lisa had a teacup thrown at it by a Russian woman who was miffed about being denied French citizenship, and was the target of a spraypaint attack while on loan to a museum in Japan in 1974, ruining a perfectly good holiday after being cooped up in the Louvre for hundreds of years.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear what\u2019s going to happen to the activists \u2013\u00a0they were scooped up quick-smart by the\u00a0 Mona Lisa Police and detained.<\/p>\n Staff, presumably armed with a bottle of Windex and a couple of damp rags, had the Mona Lisa back in action in no time at all.<\/p>\n Was the protest a successful one? In a way, yes.<\/p>\n It\u2019s closing in on lunch time and I will happily admit that I now have a hankering for some soup, so\u2026 Mission Accomplished, ladies. Well played.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As the morning turns to lunch, and as thoughts turn from investments to the cup of soup that is now quietly steaming on my desk, the benchmark is doing its absolute best to break even and stay ahead for the morning.<\/p>\n At the time of writing, the ASX 200 benchmark is sitting on 7,564.1, putting it less than 70 points from the market\u2019s all-time high of 7,632.89, which was set in August 2021.<\/p>\n So you could say that there\u2019s a tingling of expectation in the air \u2013 we saw the US S&P 500 hit an all time high last week, and Japan\u2019s Nikkei is hitting high notes that it hasn\u2019t been able to reach since Craig McLachlan left Neighbours to inflict this utter s..tshow on an unsuspecting Australian public.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n At some point, you just know that someone, somewhere was editing that video together and was told \u201cIt needs more shots of Craig\u2019s arse\u2026 so don\u2019t hold back. Really, really load it up \u2013\u00a0when the boss says more arse, he means more arse\u201d.<\/p>\n Out in front for the locals today is a booming Energy sector, which is way out in front of the market on about +1.6%, likely off the back of fast-moving crude prices which were up 1.0% overnight, and have continued to trickle slowly north throughout the morning.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Chart via Marketindex.com.au<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Weighing heavily, though, are the local Tech sector (off by 1.36%) and Materials \u2013 the latter most likely influenced by some nervous pacing in the offices of BHP (ASX:BHP)<\/strong><\/a>, as it awaits documentation from a major court case in Brazil.<\/p>\n The Aussie mining giant is on the hook for a collapsed tailings dam, which killed 19 people and levelled hundreds of homes in 2015 \u2013 and the unofficial word at the moment is that the Brazilian authorities have landed on a hefty compo package around 47.6 billion reals ($14.7 billion).<\/p>\n BHP has previously stated that it\u2019s set aside some \u2018rainy day\u2019 money to cover it \u2013 but it looks like the company has severely underestimated how much they were expecting to pay, with that fund totalling just $5.6 billion.<\/p>\n At the moment, BHP hasn\u2019t been officially served with any paperwork, so it\u2019s all a bit up in the air \u2013 but it\u2019s trading 1.3% lower this morning, so investors aren\u2019t hoping for a very early Xmas Miracle there.<\/p>\n The other big local news for the day is about Australia\u2019s much-vaunted Future Fund, set up to cover the ballooning costs of the Commonwealth\u2019s super\/pension liabilities after\u00a0 some Finance department wonk put together a spreadsheet and realised that the defined benefit pensions public servants were supposed to receive were about to bankrupt the nation in world record time.<\/p>\n The news is that it has a new boss, after the Labor government looked far and wide across the nation to find the best possible person for the incredibly important job of overseeing such a massive quantity of public money, and picked the best expert they could find.<\/p>\n Just kidding \u2013\u00a0they\u2019ve given the job to former union boss Greg Combet, on the basis that he wears glasses, so he looks smart.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On Friday, while we were all neck-deep in burnt sausages and hot beer, Wall Street carried on like nothing was amiss, and delivered a mixed result that saw the Dow emerge as the session\u2019s only winner, with +0.16% notched on the bedpost.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 lost ground for the first time in six sessions, edging down -0.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq took a knee, shedding -0.36%.<\/p>\n It seems like US investors might finally have gotten the message that the Federal Reserve has been screaming into their faces for the past couple of months, about how that market\u2019s near-hysterical betting on interest rate cuts were outrageously premature.<\/p>\n Bond yields in the US have risen again, which is a sure sign that the bets on a rate cut in March are now well and truly consigned to the dustbin, with the rate cut canaries now piling in on a far more likely move by the Fed in May.<\/p>\n In US stock news, American Express surged 7% following a strong guidance that topped analyst forecasts, while Salesforce rose slightly after announcing that it would cut around 700 workers.<\/p>\n The US market is bracing for a rash of quarterlies this week from some of the so-called Magnificent Seven, including Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re hanging out for the latest from chipmaker and market-buster Nvidia, the bad news is that you\u2019re going to have to be patient \u2013 we\u2019re not expecting their quarterly to arrive until near the end of February.<\/p>\n In Asian markets, all eyes are on the embattled Evergrande, as it puts on a brave face and heads into a Hong Kong courtroom, where a decision is set to be made over whether the beleaguered construction company will be liquidated.<\/p>\n On its face, the whole thing is a colossal disaster\u00a0\u2013 Evergrande defaulted on its debt in 2021 and cratered the construction sector in China, under the staggering weight of US$300 billion in liabilities.<\/p>\n This court case is, however, likely to be the first of many \u2013 it\u2019s as complex a legal beast as it is large \u2013\u00a0and the fight over the scraps is going to be a tough one, given the number of jurisdictions involved across mainland China and other territories.<\/p>\n Hong Kong markets are up 1.24%, and Shanghai\u2019s markets are inching lower, down 0.11% in early trade.<\/p>\n In Japan, the Nikkei is up 0.62%, and still several thousand points from hitting a post-1980s high water mark \u2013 but there\u2019s plenty of momentum in Tokyo, and they could do with some happy news after the shocker of a start they\u2019ve had in 2024.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 29 January [intraday]:<\/strong><\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n WordPress Table Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Avira Resources (ASX:AVW)<\/strong><\/a> is nominally on top of the winner\u2019s list this morning, boasting a 100% jump to $0.002 per share, as local investors took a low-cost punt on the company\u2019s recently-completed Phase 2 drill program at the Puolalaki Ni-Cu-Co-Au Project.<\/p>\n Copper prices are in the midst of a little boom at the moment, gold prices are holding above US$2,000 an ounce and it\u2019s probably best we don\u2019t talk about cobalt \u2013 but three outta four ain\u2019t bad, and Avira\u2019s got assay results due to market in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n Next best is Mako Gold (ASX:MKG)<\/strong><\/a>, up 33% this morning in the wake of a due diligence update from the company about its flagship Napi\u00e9 Gold Project, where the company has been beavering away with a low-cost geological mapping and rock chip sampling at the Tchaga Nor target.<\/p>\n Mako boss Peter Ledwidge says the company is focussing its efforts on the western greenstone granite contact at Tchaga North and on new structural trends at the site, while progressing due diligence on a proposed \u201caccretive transaction\u201d with Goldridge, with negotiations there expected to recommence shortly.<\/p>\n The alarmingly-named Sacgasco (ASX:SGC)<\/strong><\/a> has pumped its way into third place this morning, up 30% on news that three directors have bought into the company a little deeper, snapping up half a million shares each for a smidge over $4,500.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 29 January [intraday]:<\/strong><\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n WordPress Table Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n RareX (ASX:REE)<\/strong><\/a> has delivered an Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Cummins Range Rare Earths & Phosphate Project, with the new totals standing at 524Mt @ 0.31% TREO and 4.6% P2O5 for 1.6 million tonnes of contained TREO and 24 million tonnes of contained P2O5.<\/p>\n Variscan Mines (ASX:VAR)<\/strong><\/a> has announced that it has negotiated the extension of the lease covering the San Jose mine site and facilities, near Novales, located in Cantabria, northern Spain. Under the new deal, San Jose has locked in a lease for the site and facilities for three years, extendable up to six years if required.<\/p>\n Ionic Rare Earths (ASX:IXR)<\/strong><\/a> has successfully completed a placement, according to an announcement this morning, which will see the company raise approximately $2 million to advance its Makuutu Rare Earth Project and Ionic Technologies\u2019 activities \u2013 the bulk of which is coming from incoming executive chairman Brett Lynch, who has snapped up 83,333,333 Shares at $0.018 a pop, worth around $1.5 million, subject to shareholder approval.<\/p>\n Toubani Resources (ASX:TRE)<\/strong><\/a> has informed the market that it is set to kick off a targeted resource definition drill program at its Kobada Gold Project in southern Mali, which currently hosts 2.4 Moz in Mineral Resources which occurs over a 4.5km strike length.<\/p>\n South Harz Potash (ASX:SHP)<\/strong><\/a> has appointed a new non-executive chairman, elevating existing non-executive director Len Jubber to the position, effective 1 February, 2024, after current boss Ian Farmer announced plans to step down from the role, citing personal reasons.<\/p>\n And lastly for now, Pan Asia Metals (ASX:PAM)<\/strong><\/a> has news that it has received confirmation that an additional net total of ~100km2 or 10,000Ha of Exploration Concessions have been granted at the Dolores North and Dolores South Lithium Prospects, which are north of the Pink Lithium Prospect and part of PAM\u2019s Tama Atacama Lithium Project.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s Disclaimer Time! At Stockhead, we tell it like it is \u2013\u00a0and while a number of companies mentioned in this article are Stockhead advertisers, they weren\u2019t involved in the production of this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n No animals were harmed during the production of this story, either \u2013 but I\u2019m making no promises for later, because I\u2019m about to have a big, meaty lunch. Meaty.\n<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Who\u2019s directing their misplaced rage at the Mona Lisa this time?<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TO MARKETS<\/h2>\n
NOT THE ASX<\/h2>\n
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS<\/strong><\/h2>\n
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS<\/strong><\/h2>\n
ICYMI \u2013 AM Edition<\/h2>\n