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Closing Bell: Sezzle’s got some zip, Zip’s got some sizzle and Openpay’s TTV jumps +50%
ASX200 and small caps end about 0.4% down BNPLs come out of hibernation WA1 is finding even more niobium … Read More
The post Closing Bell: Sezzle’s…
- ASX200 and small caps end about 0.4% down
- BNPLs come out of hibernation
- WA1 is finding even more niobium
Local markets failed to launch on Wednesday, unlike the missile strikes early this morning AEDT, which reportedly crossed the border from Ukraine into Poland, killing two and rendering earlier gains on Wall Street a bit less emphatic.
The Street did finish higher, led by the tech-heavy Nasdaq which gained 1.4% as US bond yields declined further on bets for Fed’s slowdown in rate hikes.
That incident’s news headlines would have been extremely worrying when they first flashed up on screen. In effect, Russia attacking NATO is all downside. Sometime later it became clearer that the missile strikes were likely an error by Russia’s military but the adrenalin rush that caused takes a while to dissipate.
So, despite the broadly positive cues out of New York, the sudden geopolitical inflammation offset a smaller-than-expected rise in US producer prices. The PPI data, again suggested some kind of inflationary-deceleration . The October PPI stateside printed at 8.0% Y-o-Y, lower than the 8.3% forecast, and down from the 8.4% of September. All of which would’ve further raised hopes the US Fed might just slow the pace of interest rate hiking as soon as next month.
Elsewhere in the states, Walmart’s beat on earnings expectations has also pumped a bit of a rally in retailer stocks, adding further kindling to the fire of optimism which is always flickering in a dustbin somewhere on Wall Street.
At home, both the Emerging Companies (XEC) index and the ASX200 are lower, the benchmark extending losses into a third straight session.
At exacto 4pm in Sydney the XEC was 0.4% down and the ASX200 was 0.35% lower.
The sectors working for you today: Energy, Materials, Mining and Resources – I sense a thematic.
Although, a randomly positive October update from an especially dormant member of the hitherto hibernating BNPL sector – ya, it’s Sezzle – has put a little of the old zip back into the share prices of some familiar names.
Sezzle itzelf, jumped over 20%.
Copycats gains abounded – including that faithless huzzie, Zip – while Openpay gained less, but did it all itself after reporting a quarter of busy transacting. More on this below.
Quickly – it looks like the decent wages data out of the ABS today has locked in another Reserve Bank of Australia 25 basis point special when the Board gets back together in a few weeks, according to David Bassanese, the chief economist over at Betashares.
“Today’s stronger than expected wage price index result, especially the relatively large gain in private sector wages, likely cements the case for a further 0.25 per cent rate rise by the RBA next month,” Bassanese wrote.
You probably don’t need to hear it from me, but it’s best to get out front of the inevitable – someone wise surely said – the former US President Donald Trump has officially launched another campaign for the top office earlier this arvo our time.
Mr Trump said the fateful line – I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States – from his awful private club in Florida, promising yet another “top-to-bottom clean out” of the usual “festering rot and corruption” which has so quickly retaken root in The US Capitol since he last took a stick to it on January 6.
Trump’s declaration comes just days after a surprising number of Republicans pinned the recent midterm debacle on the ex-president’s decision to once again make it all about himself when they could’ve spent the whole time pointing the finger at a doddering economy and a President Biden in technical recession.
With about one million civil and criminal cases pointed his way, it’s neither surprising Mr Trump is running against Mr Biden nor wholly insane – the move instantly politicises any of the official investigations into his previous behaviour allowing Mr Trump to weaponise such moves by, I don’t know, calling them “the gravest threat to our civilisation” and riling his notoriously feather-trigger base with accusations about the way the Democrats are ‘weaponising the federal justice apparatus like the US Justice Department or the FBI.
Hey. And speaking of presidents… them of China (Xi) and the US (Joe) met for the first time in ages which has stoked a better fire around perceptions of China’s frozen heart – we still think it might be best to look on that talk with a beer bong full of Cautionary Ale.
Xi also met Tony (he’s ours) and Xinhua (theirs) called it great.
Apparently we’re going to make our biz conditions more inviting. It’s a very good outcome for Albo and possibly the wine, coal, lobsters and barley which China is taxing the bejesus out of.
Surprisingly this translation from News.cn is pretty close to the original Xinhua copy which went out to People’s Daily et al. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do:
ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AHN | Athena Resources | 0.014 | 100% | 66,915,362 | $6,093,273 |
| PRM | Prominence Energy | 0.002 | 100% | 2,285,269 | $2,424,609 |
| T3D | 333D Limited | 0.002 | 100% | 333,595 | $3,054,297 |
| BAS | Bass Oil Ltd | 0.061 | 65% | 215,444,231 | $9,912,939 |
| FAU | First Au Ltd | 0.006 | 50% | 8,545,991 | $3,807,973 |
| WBE | Whitebark Energy | 0.0015 | 50% | 120,022 | $6,464,886 |
| KEY | KEY Petroleum | 0.002 | 33% | 819,292 | $2,951,892 |
| MCT | Metalicity Limited | 0.004 | 33% | 2,196,320 | $10,476,118 |
| MGG | Mogul Games Grp Ltd | 0.002 | 33% | 855,766 | $4,895,162 |
| TSC | Twenty Seven Co. Ltd | 0.002 | 33% | 145,024 | $7,982,442 |
| GMN | Gold Mountain Ltd | 0.013 | 30% | 18,979,678 | $14,831,492 |
| RFT | Rectifier Technology | 0.045 | 29% | 23,352,812 | $48,121,638 |
| DXN | DXN Limited | 0.005 | 25% | 1,516,800 | $6,885,259 |
| MRD | Mount Ridley Mines | 0.005 | 25% | 2,534,396 | $26,368,683 |
| SIH | Sihayo Gold Limited | 0.0025 | 25% | 1,002,500 | $12,204,256 |
| EEL | Enrg Elements Ltd | 0.021 | 24% | 1,171,689 | $15,776,032 |
| LYN | Lycaon Resources | 0.505 | 23% | 929,605 | $13,496,688 |
| SLM | Solis Minerals | 0.08 | 23% | 61,673 | $3,017,979 |
| CLA | Celsius Resource Ltd | 0.0135 | 23% | 22,684,845 | $16,531,119 |
| NSB | Neuroscientific | 0.09 | 22% | 365,659 | $10,616,902 |
| LER | Leaf Res Ltd | 0.012 | 20% | 2,472,962 | $11,560,828 |
| ROG | Red Sky Energy | 0.006 | 20% | 11,742,690 | $26,511,136 |
| OD6 | OD6 Metals | 0.5 | 19% | 4,066,484 | $20,723,008 |
| NCL | Netccentric Ltd | 0.065 | 18% | 1,000 | $15,565,641 |
One may recall the jilted payments play Sezzle Inc. (ASX:SZL), or perhaps the ratbag lover, BNPL leader Zip Co (ASX:ZIP) what left her at the altar?
Or perhaps the uninvited industry upstart Openpay (ASX:OPY)?
We can start there actually – according to its latest quarterly OPY’s total transaction volumes (TTV) jumped some 56% in Q1 compared to last year, hitting a record high of well over $114 mn.
That’s the first time Openpay’s revenue topped the sacred $100 million mark, and despite not having much cash on hand the stock has responded strongly.
Meantime, Sezzle’s October business update grabbed the market by the buy now, pay laters with an 18% surge in Y-o-Y income – representing $18 million of total income during the month ending on 31 October 2022. Naturally the share price is up about 18%.
“Our path to profitability is not just about cost cutting, but also growing revenue. October was the Company’s second-best performance ever, in terms of revenue,” says Charlie Youakim, Chairman and CEO.
“We are looking forward to the upcoming holiday season and expect to reach new highs in top line performance. We are even more excited about 2023, as we expect to turn the corner in profitability and launch additional revenue generating and cost savings initiatives beyond the US$60.0M announced in 2022.”
Sezzle’s former suitor ZIP, literally sitting on its hands today ahead of looming government regulatory intervention in the beleaguered sector, has also jumped in a seemingly hurtful mock mimic of the smaller BNPL it left to sizzle on the BBQ of unrequited M&A earlier this year.
Well, to be fair, ZIP did just announce a partnership with eBay. The shopping site’s millions of peculiar (ok, lets call them unique) monthly visitors will now be able to pay for their purchases with increasingly rate driven and likely cumulative and certainly compounded – but flexible – instalments.
Rectifier Technologies (ASX:RFT), is soaring after scoring a US$22 million order from i-charging mobilidade elétrica for a customised version of the RT22 charger module for i-charging’s blueberry range of DC Fast Charger.
RFT is trading some 40% the better for it.
You’ll remember WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) from about 72 hours ago. Today the flavour of the month dropped new news of a new Niobium-REE mineralised carbonatite system at West Arunta.
Gregor:
“It’s in a trading suspension at the moment, but the doubt is zero that this discovery will send WA1 through the roof again. At the end of October, it moved from $0.13 to around $2.00 on its first hit at the project… and word on the street is that this news is going to send it right over the top again.”
Noice.
ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS
Here are the least performing ASX small cap stocks:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AO1 | Assetowl Limited | 0.001 | -33% | 90,181 | $2,358,195 |
| CCE | Carnegie Cln Energy | 0.0015 | -25% | 1,114,090 | $31,285,147 |
| TD1 | Tali Digital Limited | 0.003 | -25% | 78,167 | $4,930,522 |
| AER | Aeeris Ltd | 0.11 | -15% | 7,695 | $9,305,902 |
| PEC | Perpetual Res Ltd | 0.022 | -15% | 400,000 | $13,957,250 |
| FML | Focus Minerals Ltd | 0.175 | -15% | 13,813 | $58,744,522 |
| GTG | Genetic Technologies | 0.003 | -14% | 11,000 | $32,318,878 |
| RAN | Range International | 0.006 | -14% | 2,000 | $6,575,032 |
| SUM | Summit Minerals | 0.19 | -14% | 296,212 | $5,440,061 |
| 1VG | Victory Goldfields | 0.205 | -13% | 3,237,731 | $11,686,585 |
| CAD | Caeneus Minerals | 0.0035 | -13% | 577,739 | $21,382,420 |
| CUF | Cufe Ltd | 0.014 | -13% | 2,064,755 | $15,457,798 |
| CUL | Cullen Resources | 0.014 | -13% | 105,625 | $7,801,988 |
| LNU | Linius Tech Limited | 0.0035 | -13% | 901,477 | $9,646,132 |
| BGT | Bio-Gene Technology | 0.105 | -13% | 105,276 | $21,243,998 |
| EMS | Eastern Metals | 0.105 | -13% | 444,361 | $4,687,730 |
| TRU | Truscreen | 0.035 | -13% | 53,920 | $14,514,650 |
| BTN | Butn Limited | 0.185 | -12% | 39,491 | $16,457,467 |
| KZR | Kalamazoo Resources | 0.225 | -12% | 348,952 | $37,948,940 |
| LBT | LBT Innovations | 0.06 | -12% | 172,148 | $21,938,673 |
| IFM | Infomedia Ltd | 1.175 | -12% | 2,577,697 | $499,796,710 |
| LEL | Lithium Energy | 0.92 | -12% | 1,452,452 | $62,556,000 |
| PVW | PVW Res Ltd | 0.115 | -12% | 158,435 | $12,092,844 |
| CY5 | Cygnus Gold Limited | 0.465 | -11% | 1,256,138 | $80,548,290 |
| NET | Netlinkz Limited | 0.031 | -11% | 9,692,960 | $114,586,840 |
Nah.
THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED ON WEDNESDAY
This is a great story.
Genomic-tech firm EZZ Life Science Holdings (ASX:EZZ) has had its most successful 11.11 Global Shopping Festival yet with sales x 8 what they were last year over the same festive period.
The sales event set a new company record, with over 41,600 items being purchased on the company’s Tmall store and via its presence on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.
It was the fourth year EZZ had participated in the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, and saw the company serve 17,560 customers via its presence on China’s online retail marketplaces.
EZZ chair Glenn Cross told Stockhead the record success is a result of growing consumer interest in health products and the company’s increased investment in strategic marketing over the shopping festival period.
“We are thrilled with the results of this year’s 11.11 event. The China market is a key area of growth for our company, and 11.11 presents a powerful opportunity to grow our presence in the country.”
TRADING HALTS
Noronex (ASX:NRX) – How do you do, sir? (Cap Raise).
Tesoro Gold (ASX:TSO) – Very well! And you, sir? (Cap Raise).
Wiseway Group (ASX:WWG) – WWG wants to tell us all about a strategic acquisition of the same nature as the current business.
OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL) – And OZ Minerals has called a halt to proceedings ahead of info about a “potential change of control transaction”. Juicy stuff.
The post Closing Bell: Sezzle’s got some zip, Zip’s got some sizzle and Openpay’s TTV jumps +50% appeared first on Stockhead.
