Market Update & Important Indicators
A rough week for technology stocks battered the Nasdaq Composite, dragging the index to its worst week since March. The tech-heavy index slipped Friday after President Trump said tariffs on an additional $267 billion in goods imported from China could be implemented on short notice. Shares of technology companies, which had been trading higher earlier in the session, erased gains. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3% on Friday, putting its weekly decline at 2.6% — its worst performance since the week ended March 23 when Facebook's data-privacy scandal erupted. The S&P 500 shed 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.3%. Fears of tariffs, increased government regulation and pricing pressures have weighed on tech companies in recent sessions. Twitter's stock declined 1% on Friday, putting its weekly loss at 13%. Facebook shares edged up 0.3% on the day, but ended the week down 7.2%. Shares of Tesla dropped 6.3% following executive departures and an interview that appeared to show Chief Executive Elon Musk smoking marijuana.
European shares closed just within positive territory after a rise in the dollar against the euro following an upbeat U.S. job report. The Stoxx Europe 600 edged 0.1% higher as the euro dropped 0.4% against the dollar. The DAX gained less than 0.1%, and the CAC 40 rose 0.2%.
Wall Street's technology selloff continued in Asian markets on Friday, with Samsung falling 2.6%. Shares in Chinese heavyweight Tencent rose 0.7% but remained down 6.8% on the week. South Korea's Kospi shed 0.3% and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.8%, with the Japanese index closing lower for the sixth consecutive trading day. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng held steady and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4%.
Wall Street's technology selloff continued in Asian markets on Friday, with Samsung falling 2.6%. Shares in Chinese heavyweight Tencent rose 0.7% but remained down 6.8% on the week. South Korea's Kospi shed 0.3% and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.8%, with the Japanese index closing lower for the sixth consecutive trading day. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng held steady and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4%.
Australian stocks continued to sag, logging a seventh-straight decline, though the market staged a decent afternoon rebound to finish near session highs. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2% on Friday while notching its longest slide since the eight-day run at the start of 2016. It declined 2.8% for the week, the most since early-February's global rout. Energy stocks lost 1% following oil's further declines overnight, and health care fell a further 1.7% as CSL lost 3% more. But the mining sector rose slightly–Rio Tinto climbed 1.7%–and consumer staples rebounded 0.4%.
Base metal prices were mainly up on the London Metal Exchange. Losses were recorded in nickel which was down 0.7% to 12,271/t, along with zinc which fell 1% to record 2,423/t. The 3-month copper contract advanced 0.2% to 5,915/t, while lead gained 2.2% to close at 2,058/t. aluminium gained 1.4% to 2031/t and Lead appreciated 2.2% to 2,058/t.
In this issue
Australian Mines (AUZ) | Advanced Cobalt – Invitation | SPEC BUY
Market Cap $183m | Current Price $0.07
Australian Mines Ltd (AUZ) is developing the Sconi nickel-cobalt-scandium project in Queensland, Australia. Sconi is an oxide limonite deposit with mineralisation from surface. The deposit has a resource of 89Mt at 0.58% Ni and 0.06% Co and is currently subject to a Definitive Feasibility Study (BFS), due for release in the current quarter. We expect the BFS to outline a 2.0-2.4Mtpa operation producing 15ktpa Ni and 3ktpa Co in battery grade sulphate products. AUZ has 100% of Ni/Co sulphate products committed to a binding offtake agreement with Korean based battery producer SK Innovation. Sconi benefits from free-dig low strip mining, proximity to an established town and the port city of Townsville. The Project is on a granted Mining Lease (ML) and has sealed roads and power to site. We regard Sconi as the most advanced laterite Ni/Co project in Australia. SPEC BUY recommendation.
Recent Contacts & Presentations
Dimerix (DXB), Aspire Mining (AKM), Austal Limited (ASB), Macmahon Holdings Limited (MAH), Nickle Mines Limited (NIC), Carnarvon Petroleum Limited (CVN), Prodigy Gold (PRX), Ausdrill Ltd (ASL), Bionomics Ltd (BNO), Gold Road Resources (GOR), Encounter Resources Ltd. (ENR), OZ Minerals Limited (OZL), Melbana Energy (MAY), Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BOT), Novo Litio (NLI), Classic Minerals (CLZ), OZ Minerals (OZL), Saturn Metals (STN), Antipa Minerals (AZY), SRG Ltd (SRG) Bowen Coking Coal (BCB), Birimian (BGS), Breaker Resources (BRB), Galena Mining (G1A), Valmec (VMX),Bryah Resources (BYH), Calima Energy (CE1) Genesis Minerals (GMD), Agrimin (AMN), Magnetic Resources (MAU), Core Exploration (CXO), Marindi Metals (MZN), MOD Resources (MOD), Santos (STO), Adriatic Metals (ADT) Bio–Gene Technology (BGT), Walkabout Resources (WKT), Triton Minerals (TON), Calima Energy (CE1)
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