Market Update & Important Indicators:
U.S. stocks fell intraday as shares of technology companies continued tumbling and investors braced for a busy week of corporate earnings and central-bank meetings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 144 points, or 0.6%, to 25307. The S&P 500 slipped 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.1%. Tech stocks in the S&P 500 slid 1.6%, with shares of Facebook off 3.5% and Twitter down 7.2% as last week's disappointing earnings reports weighed on sentiment. Netflix, meanwhile, dropped 4.8%, bringing its losses for the month to date to 14%. Despite those companies' high-profile stumbles, the earnings season is shaping up to be strong. As of Friday, 83% of the companies in the S&P 500 that had reported results posted stronger-than-expected earnings and 73% beat estimates on revenue, according to FactSet. The US gold price was down 0.2% to record 1221.00 US$/oz.
European stocks fell from a six-week high, with brewer Heineken among the companies whose shares lost ground after financial results, with troubles surrounding the technology sector and global trade weighing on markets before July dealings wrap up this week. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.3% to finish at 390.92, with tech and utilities sectors losing the most. The telecom and financial sectors were the only advancers. Germany's DAX 30 index fell 0.5% for a close at 12,798.20, and France's CAC 40 index moved down 0.4% to 5,491.22. Spain's IBEX 35 ended 0.1% lower at 9,854.10, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index shed less than 1 point to close at 7,700.85.
Asian stocks largely finished how they started – with broad declines. A Friday afternoon slide in the U.S. helped darken the mood for equities to start the week. The worst performer was Chinese small caps, with the start-up-heavy ChiNext skidding 2.2% as mainland equities fell for a fourth-straight day. Japan underperformed while many other markets were off less than 0.5%. Meanwhile, the Philippines' benchmark continued to rebound, rising 0.9% more to put July's jump at 8.1%. It's on pace for its best month since March 2016. Vietnam's benchmark has bounced a further 1.5% and India is looking to set its sixth-straight record closing high. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2%, Japan's Nikkei lost 0.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.2%. Investors will be turning their attention this week to monetary policy, with the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and Bank of England holding meetings.
Australia's stock benchmark held up better than many in Asia Pacific, a session after the S&P/ASX 200 notched its latest 10 1/2-year closing high. The index fell 0.35% to 6278.4, trimmed by a late-afternoon uptick. The hot health-care sector pulled back 0.9% while materials also underperformed. But energy and consumer stocks finished essentially flat.
Base metal prices were mixed on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminium gained 1.0% to 2,075/t, while the 3-month copper contract fell 0.8% to 6,224/t. Zinc was 1.4% lower, as tin rose 0.5% to 20,149/t. Lead was 0.4% higher to close at 2,139/t.
In this issue:
Thematic Research – Oil and Gas |ASX Listed Oil Producers – Who are they?
This report takes a closer look at ASX listed oil producers. It is a small cohort of companies that have survived the oil downturn and are now beginning to thrive in the higher oil price and lower cost environment. We also have a look at the macro picture for oil and examine the drivers of crude oil demand as we believe that hydrocarbons will have a place in the global energy mix for some time to come. Our view is that the use of renewable energy will increase but not at the expense of hydrocarbon-based energy due to the growing demand from the emerging world. We believe the demand is being driven by the ongoing movement of people into the ranks of the middle class in emerging countries. Our key pick on the ASX is Otto Energy, and we review Australis Oil and Gas, Buru Energy, Byron Energy, Freedom Oil and Gas and Sundance Energy.
Salt Lake Potash (SO4) |Quarterly Report: June 2018
Market Cap $80.5m | Current Price $0.46
Salt Lake Potash (SO4) is developing a Sulphate of Potash (SOP) project across a number of salt lakes across the Gold Fields Region of Western Australia. SO4 is working on a scoping study to build a 50,000 tpa demonstration plant on Lake Way. Lake Way is close to gas and transport infrastructure making it the ideal location to develop a project. Test work is ongoing on the project with the flow sheet development and bulk sample evaporation underway. Progress has also been made at the other lakes in the SO4 portfolio. We retain our Speculative Buy recommendation.
Recent Contacts & Presentations:
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), Peel Mining (PEX), Catalyst Metals (CYL), Vault Intelligence (VLT), Doray Minerals (DRM), Nzuri Coppoer (NZC), Bowen Coking Coal (BCB), Phosphagenics Limited (POH) Great Boulder Resources (GBR), Orthocell (OCC), Northern Minerals (NTU), ABM Resources Ltd (ABU), Vital Metals Ltd (VML), Todd River Resources Ltd (TRT), Pacific Energy Ltd (PEA), Carnarvon Petroleum Ltd (CVN), Australian Mines Ltd (AUZ), Australian Finance Group (AFG), Paladin Energy Ltd (PDN), Cooper Energy Ltd (COE), Medibio Ltd (MEB), Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BOT), Salt Lake Potash Ltd (SO4)
Please read Argonaut's Important Disclaimers & disclosures
Log in to the client area below to download the full Morning Note PDF
