ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Who’s had their world turned upside down this week?

Local markets are higher this morning, up 0.4% at the time of writing thanks to a surge in oil and gold prices prompted by what looks like the start of a gruesome round of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.

Brent crude is up 4.5%, WTI crude is up 4.4% and gold has moved to AUD$2,905.16 an ounce, a rise of nearly 1.4% – signs that the markets are viewing the aggression in Israel to be much larger and longer-lasting than the usual cross-border spats in the region.

I’ll get into all that in a minute, but first there’s some brief (and also not-super-happy) news from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where a Brisbane-based “extreme rower” – which is totally a thing, apparently – has been forced to abandon his effort to row solo across the Pacific.

Tom Robinson, 24, set off on his epic journey from Peru in July last year, aboard his home-made rowboat “Maiwar” – and was reportedly on track to arrive in Cairns in December after 12,800km worth of really, really hard work.

Sadly, things haven’t worked out for young Tom – on Thursday last week, an “unexpectedly large wave … came through the main hatch and flooded the cabin”, crippling the vessel, which then overturned.

Robinson managed to set off his distress alarm, and authorities from Noumea in New Caledonia scrambled a plane to go look for him, eventually finding him around 100 nautical miles southwest of Luganville, Vanuatu.

After he was located, a nearby P&O cruise ship was diverted to go and rescue him from certain doom – floating, stark naked, on top of the upturned boat.

He’s expected to make a full recovery, despite the 100% chance of a mind-blowingly sunburnt backside – and he’s expected home in the coming days, provided he doesn’t succumb to a bowel-shattering dose of cruise ship buffet-induced dysentery on the ride home.

TO MARKETS

Local markets have opened higher this morning, with most of the heavy lifting coming via the Energy and Materials sectors.

Much of that is attributable to a chunky 3.0% spike in crude oil prices, sparked by a major outbreak of hostilities in Israel which is spiralling out of control, leaving more than 700 Israelis and 400 Palestinians dead, according to CNN.

There are at present 13 Israeli companies listed on the ASX, most of which are falling this morning (as you’d expect) – including Weebit Nano (ASX:WBT) down 9.5%, and the already-embattled MGC Pharmaceuticals (ASX:MXC), down 50%.

Sector-wise, we’re 7 up and 4 down this morning, with Energy out in front on a +2.85% bump, followed by Materials which has added 1.3% this morning.

Lagging, however, is Consumer Staples, dropping 0.83% before lunch.

Unsurprisingly, and again attributable to the military action in Israel, gold prices have spiked as well, which in turn has sent the XGD ASX All Ords Gold index up significantly today, climbing a market-leading 4.8% since the doors opened this morning.

The spike in interest in gold has helped some of the big names to make serious gains today, including +7.85% for De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG), +6.1% for Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) and +5.1% for Red 5 (ASX:RED).

NOT THE ASX

In the US overnight, the majors rose by around 1% as traders assessed the stronger than expected US jobs report, which revealed that employers in the US added nearly twice as many jobs in September at 336,000, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%.

“Even though the employment data was considerably higher, at least this is a scenario that bodes well for the economy and signals that we’re likely not going into a recession,” said Nick Giacoumakis of NEIRG Wealth Management.

US treasury yields spiked (bond prices down) after the release, with the 10-year Treasury yield surging to its highest level of the year at 4.86%, and gains in US equities meanwhile were fairly broad based, Eddy Sunarto reported this morning.

In US stock news, Tesla closed 0.2% higher after cutting the price of some Model 3 and Model Y versions in the US.

ExxonMobil, however, closed -1.6% lower after revealing that it was in negotiations to buy US$50bn market capped Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), which is the largest crude producer in Texas.

In Asia, there ain’t nothin’ happening on the major markets – China’s mainland markets are still closed for holidays, Hong Kong is closed unexpectedly thanks to the tail end of Typhoon Koinu, which has flooded the city and forced local authorities to tell everyone to stay indoors.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 09 October [intraday]:

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Fin Resources (ASX:FIN) is up 82% this morning on news that the company’s maiden fieldwork program has identified abundant spodumene crystals within a broad pegmatite outcrop at its Cancet West project in Quebec.

Of note within the find are some “large, up to 30cm long green spodumene crystals, trace lepidolite, coarse muscovite, tourmaline, blue-green beryl, coarse red garnets and megacrystic feldspars” which were mapped within one of the pegmatite outcrops.

It’s not surprising at all, given that the project is located  45km west of Winsome Resources’ (ASX:WR1) Cancet lithium deposit and 100km west of Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX:PMT) ) Corvette Lithium Deposit (Corvette).

King River Resources (ASX:KRR) is flying this morning on no news, up around 40% and earning itself a speeding ticket from the ASX. PainChek (ASX:PCK) is also up this morning on no news, climbing 38%.

Bounty Oil & Gas (ASX:BUY) is making gains, most likely due to sharply rising oil prices in the wake of the conflict developing in Israel.

And Mobilicom (ASX:MOB) is up 17% this morning, one of the very few Israeli companies doing well today, but the reason remains unclear.

It might be because the company has requested an extension prior to an upcoming voluntary delisting to allow shareholders to complete converting their shares into American Depositary Shares.

But it could also be related to its core business as an end-to-end provider of cybersecurity and robust solutions for drones and robotics, given the current geopolitical issues its country is facing.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 09 October [intraday]:

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