Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens

Here’s everything you need to know before the ASX fires up on Tuesday.

Ulysses S. Grant, who tanked the US economy teaching two would-be gold merchants a lesson, and now lives on upon the US $50 note. Pic via Getty Images

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Thursday, September 24, 2024 – an important date in the history of Wall Street greed.

That’s because it was on this day in 1869 that a plot to corner the US gold market came badly undone, causing months of economic turmoil and earning that day the nickname “Black Friday”.

The would-be gold barons were Jay Gould and James Fisk, two financiers who – through their contact Abel Corbin, who was married to US President Ulysses S. Grant’s sister – tried to weasel their way into learning what the US government planned to do with the sale of its gold reserves, in order to pay down the debt incurred during the American Civil War.

Gould and Fisk had been quietly buying up a substantial amount of gold themselves, and sought to influence President Grant and dissuade his government from its policy of bi-weekly gold sales, in order to drive up the price so they would get even richer.

It nearly worked, after  Grant sent Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell, a letter which caused him to pause the sale of gold. However, Grant was either tipped off or figured out himself what the pair were up to, when they continued to buy up as much gold as they could afford after the government stopped selling.

Grant ordered Boutwell to dump $4 million in government gold onto the market on September 24, tanking the gold price and no doubt causing Fisk and Gould some severe heartburn in the process.

Unfortunately, it also upended the value of the US dollar, and upset the Wall Street applecart to such an extent that the US was very nearly plunged into a serious depression… and all because two blokes got greedy over gold.

Luckily for you, you won’t have to manipulate the gold market in order to get your hands on good pre-market info today.

That’s because – as always – we’ve worked super-hard to gather together lots of fiddly little things below, so you don’t need to go ferreting all over the internet for your ASX info this morning.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO PRICES

Gold: US$2,628.96 (+0.28%)

Silver: US$31.00 (-0.55%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,172/t (+0.42%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,393/t (+-.--%)

Zinc: US$2,868/t (-0.07%)

Oil (WTI): US$71.55 (+0.79%)

Oil (Brent): US$75.02 (+0.73%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$90.30/t (-1.49%)

AUD/USD: 0.6825 (+0.25%)

Bitcoin: US$63,763.70 (+0.21%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

What’s on the cards for investor’s dividends this coming year? Eddy Sunarto spoke to the folks at Morningstar to find out in this edition of Hot Money Monday.

Hot Money Monday: Dividend investors face challenges, but avoid “yield traps” with Morningstar’s Best Ideas list > https://t.co/6TtMuZdKdK

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) September 23, 2024

MONDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
JPR	Jupiter Energy	0.025	56%	2,223	$20,391,768
MTH	Mithril Silver Gold	0.570	54%	11,669,662	$38,138,202
EMP	Emperor Energy Ltd	0.012	41%	16,909,526	$3,312,575
ODE	Odessa Minerals Ltd	0.003	50%	180,079	$2,086,565
MXO	Motio Ltd	0.025	39%	3,185,037	$4,827,570
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.004	33%	65,000	$5,298,086
WTM	Waratah Minerals Ltd	0.470	32%	3,571,602	$67,035,064
ERW	Errawarra Resources	0.095	32%	1,126,895	$6,906,288
NOV	Novatti Group Ltd	0.080	29%	1,936,088	$22,056,528
PGO	Pacgold	0.150	25%	181,599	$10,097,453
88E	88 Energy Ltd	0.003	25%	12,354,846	$57,867,624
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.003	25%	500,000	$6,338,594
CAV	Carnavale Resources	0.005	25%	110,000	$16,360,874
CYQ	Cycliq Group Ltd	0.005	25%	1,172,188	$1,782,067
NAE	New Age Exploration	0.005	25%	8,227,416	$7,175,596
WML	Woomera Mining Ltd	0.003	25%	599,943	$3,036,278
PVW	PVW Res Ltd	0.026	24%	511,115	$2,654,500
ESR	Estrella Res Ltd	0.011	22%	20,456,818	$16,359,347
BPM	BPM Minerals	0.110	22%	3,182,466	$6,040,999
PNT	Panthermetalsltd	0.023	21%	1,058,983	$1,656,157
ADD	Adavale Resource Ltd	0.003	20%	203,550	$3,059,413
ATX	Amplia Therapeutics	0.160	19%	2,700,802	$37,097,772
LAM	Laramide Res Ltd	0.563	17%	10,000	$9,820,432

Monday’s small cap winners included:

Media company Motio (ASX:MXO) was up after delivering an investor update to the market, drawing attention to the company’s performance in FY24. Motio says that it has managed to bring in a 27% rise in revenue to $8.367 million on a gross margin of 72%, with the company guidance for FY25 coming in at a 10%-15% increase on pcp, targeting between $9.2 million to $9.6 million.

Mithril Silver and Gold (ASX:MTH) was rising, most likely on the back of Friday’s report that the company has hit a fantastic intercept at its Copalquin project in Mexico. The company says the drill result has come back at a breathtaking 7m grading 144g/t gold and 1162g/t silver, with that intercept from a down-hole depth of just 18m forming part of a broader 33m intersection at 31.8g/t gold and 274g/t silver from surface.

Lachlan Fold Belt explorer, Golden Deeps (ASX:GED),  has made another splash after news broke about an 80m-thick high-grade copper intersection from its Havilah project, which sent the share price nuclear.

It dipped on news of a subsequent $1.78m capital raising, yet shares are back up today after announcing a bigger 92m sulphide hit that extends the Hazelbrook copper zone at Havilah. Copper grades of up to 3.6% were discovered using a handheld pXRF reader, and while those visual readings are no substitute for lab analysed confirmation of grades, they bode well for future exploration work. The intersection of another thick zone of sulphide mineralisation in HVD004, including patches of copper sulphides, extends the Hazelbrook mineralised zone 200m to the northeast of the 80m sulphide intersection in HVD003.

Avecho (ASX:AVE) rose after delivering a not-exactly-stellar half-year financial report this morning, showing that the company has experienced a revenue drop of 30% for the period to $312,187, which the company says is “mainly attributable to a decrease in Vital ET sales made to Ashland during the period”. However, Research and development tax incentive and other income increased by 80% to $725,182 – and the company currently has net assets of $4,216,535, including cash and cash equivalents of $4,838,410.

Emperor Energy (ASX:EMP) was up on news that it has received firm commitments to raise  $1.25 million in an institutional placement, at an issue price of $0.007 per share with Nero Resources Fund, Perennial Value Management and Regal Funds Management set to become substantial shareholders. The company has also appointed Argonaut as a strategic financial advisor to assist with progressing the Judith Gas Field Project.

New Age Exploration (ASX:NAE)’s early exploration drilling at its Wagyu gold project in WA’s Pilbara is gaining attention as the junior plans to drill ~4300m as part of a Phase 2 program that’s continuing to test high-priority targets, including potential ‘Hemi-style’ intrusive systems just 9km along strike from De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG) ~10.5Moz Hemi gold deposit.

The AC drilling is testing additional gold targets that were identified from geophysics surveys and are following up on Phase 1 geological observations. Phase 1 itself was completed between July and September across gold targets on the eastern side of the project with >7640m drilled across 156 holes, which are currently being assayed for gold and multi-elements, with expected by the end of the month.

Laramide Resources (ASX:LAM) was also rising, but today’s news of a change of Director’s interest most likely wasn’t the cause. Last week, the company revealed first assays from its Long Pocket infill drilling progrem, which returned strong uranium mineralisation at shallow depths. Significant intersections included 10m @ 606ppm U3O8 from 6m depth, including 2m @ 1,726ppm U3O8 from 11m, and 8m @ 1,770ppm U3O8 from 16m depth, including 4m @ 3,128ppm U3O8 from 17m.

MONDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
BUR	Burley Minerals	0.049	-26%	1,032,400	$9,924,482
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.003	-25%	8,701,321	$9,724,426
ENT	Enterprise Metals	0.003	-25%	329,096	$4,413,269
LNU	Linius Tech Limited	0.002	-25%	112,498	$11,093,481
RNE	Renu Energy Ltd	0.002	-25%	14,503,500	$1,528,268
VPR	Voltgroupltd	0.002	-25%	504,907	$21,432,416
QEM	QEM Limited	0.100	-23%	413,191	$19,680,923
PRS	Prospech Limited	0.030	-21%	2,378,009	$11,499,855
EXL	Elixinol Wellness	0.004	-20%	413,379	$6,605,912
TYX	Tyranna Res Ltd	0.004	-20%	519,725	$16,439,627
AIV	Activex Limited	0.005	-17%	508,010	$1,293,015
EPM	Eclipse Metals	0.005	-17%	300,000	$13,505,133
LPD	Lepidico Ltd	0.003	-17%	450,956	$25,767,375
ZMM	Zimi Ltd	0.010	-17%	175,000	$1,519,977
SHV	Select Harvests	3.700	-17%	1,491,527	$536,429,099
LRL	Labyrinth Resources	0.016	-16%	8,072,301	$25,144,164
MEG	Megado Minerals Ltd	0.016	-16%	417,648	$4,834,656
COD	Coda Minerals Ltd	0.084	-14%	1,095,940	$17,178,670
AKN	Auking Mining Ltd	0.006	-14%	300,000	$2,230,809
PVT	Pivotal Metals Ltd	0.012	-14%	596,737	$9,857,656
SRN	Surefire Rescs NL	0.006	-14%	1,943,500	$13,904,155
ZNC	Zenith Minerals Ltd	0.037	-14%	8,000	$15,152,378

TRADING HALTS

Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) – pending an announcement in relation to an expansion of the Nióbio Project in Brazil.

Site Group International (ASX:SIT) – pending an announcement in relation to an equity raising.

Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) – pending the release of an announcement in relation to a capital raising.

West Cobar Metals (ASX:WC1) – pending an announcement of drilling results from the Bulla Park project.

Nordic Nickel (ASX:NNL) – pending an announcement in relation to a proposed capital raising.

Felix Gold (ASX:FXG) – pending an announcement in relation to a potential material capital raising.

Fletcher Building (ASX:FBU) – pending announcement of completion of a placement and institutional offer.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens