US markets showed nerves ahead of the US interest rates policy decision due overnight. It’s one year since rates there were last lifted, the wide consensus amongst analysts is that rates won’t shift down until at least September.

So there was that, a miss in Microsoft’s earnings report, and, the chip sector pulling the Nasdaq down 1.3%, with market darling Nvidia losing 7%. The S&P500 shed half a per cent, but the Dow Jones bucked the trend adding the same (0.5%).

Important data’s due out from the Australian Bureau of sStatistics this morning, Consumer Price Index (CPI) and retail trade figures that will likely provide more clues as to what will happen with our interest rates here next Tuesday.

Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) has just delivered its half yearly results. Its sales revenue was up 1%, its net earnings were up 14%, but RIO’s dividends will stay unchanged at $1.77 a share. It is heralding an increase in copper production of about 2% this year.

But that comes with the copper price continuing to slide, down 7.8% for the month to $4.07 a pound. It’s now only 1.6% above where it was a year ago.

It’s day two on market for Bhagwan Marine (ASX:BWN) which listed yesterday and traded between 62 cents and 67 cents.

The Marine Services company raised $80 million in its IPO with 63 cent shares. The company was founded by the Kannikoski family in Geraldton with a single vessel in 2000. The company expects to deliver an EBITDA of $39.5 million to $40.5 million for its FY24 results due late August.

One Australian dollar is buying US65.3 cents.

Gold’s up a per cent to $2409.70 an ounce, iron ore’s just above $106.50 ($106.59) a tonne, brent crude has been trading around $79 a barrel as and natural gas is at $2.12 a gigajoule.

Most sectors made ground, with Consumer Staples and Energy today’s biggest winners with gains up towards 2 per cent.

Burritos giant Guzman y Gomez has fast-tracked its move to the ASX – looking to list in June. It has 185 stores and wants to expand its footprint. The company’s IPO shares will be priced at $22, and its ticker code is set to be suitably aligned at GYG.

Little Green Pharma (ASX:LGP) is up 4 per cent after reporting revenue of $25.6 million, up $5.7 million – or 29 per cent.

The company sells medicinal cannabis oil and flower products.

It’s finished the year to the end of March, with a smaller loss than in FY23.

Little Green Pharma closed the day at 13 cents.

Contact Energy Limited (CEN) closed up nearly 3.5% after it reaching a long term agreement with New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) to supply renewable electricity to its (Teewhy) Tiwai Point operation in Southland.

The deal spans right through to the end of 2044.

CEN closed the day at $8.48

And digital marketing play, I Synergy Group (ASX:IS3) added 40 per cent off a low base after holding its AGM.  

I Synergy closed the week at 1.4 cents.

Namoi Cotton (ASX:NAM) fell nearly 1.5% after directing shareholders to accept an off-market takeover offer from Olam Agri Australia.

The Independent Directors recommend shareholders in the Queensland and New South Wales cotton producer, allow Olam to acquire all Namoi shares at  $0.70.

There have been other bidders: Earlier this month the ACCC raised competition concerns about a rival bid by Louis Dreyfus Company.

NAM closed the day close to that value – at 69 cents.

Battery metals play Talga Group (ASX:TLG) dropped more than 6 per cent, despite releasing a study into expansion options for its graphite project in Sweden.

The interim scoping study explores increasing Talga’s underground mining of 19,500 tonnes per annum of low-emission graphite anode products.  The company’s looking to tap into Europe’s lithium-ion battery market.

TLG closed the week at 61 cents.

And Alchemy Resources (ASX:ALY) fell 12.5% following its exploration activities at its Bryah Basin Project in Western Australia.

Although the company cited ‘exceptional high’ iron ore grades from the Valley Bore target, the market didn’t buy today.

In 2008 and 2009, the company discovered high-grade hematite and banded iron outcrops over a 2 km strike, with grades up to 66.3% iron. Recent rock-chip sampling returned similar results.

Alchemy closed the day at point-7 of a cent.

The debutants were:

Another company, Battery Age Minerals is due to start trading on the ASX on Monday under the ticker code BM8.

It’s a re-listing focussed on the Falcon Lake lithium project in Canada, with secondary projects targeting copper in Morocco and zinc, lead and germanium in Austria.

BM8 has raised $6.5 million through the listing process with 40-cent shares.

The ADSs each represent 180 ordinary shares of Bionomics and were sold at a public offering price of US$12.35 (A$17.11) per ADS.

The total gross proceeds, including the previously issued 1.62 million ADSs, increased to approximately US$23 million (A$31.8 million).

This is before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses payable by Bionomics.

The ADSs began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on December 16, under the ticker symbol ‘BNOX’.

Evercore ISI and William Blair acted as lead book-running managers for the offering.

Cantor, Berenberg and H.C. Wainwright & Co. acted as book-running managers for the offering.

Bionomics is advancing its lead product candidate, BNC210, for the acute treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder and chronic treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

BNC210 is in its Phase 2b trial, known as the ATTUNE Study.

The study will evaluate a tablet formulation of the candidate to be used as a treatment for the previously mentioned disorders.

Bionomics (BNO) last traded at $0.11 per share before market open on January 6.