Category: News

COVID-19 is the biggest shock to the world since World War II. Could it trigger a permanent change to the way we do capitalism? In 2011, geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer foretold a potential power vacuum as China emerged, Russia got bolshy, social media took hold and the West started to lose relevance. 

Clinical stage oncology company Prescient Therapeutics (ASX: PTX) has announced that two of its assets will be used for a COVID-19 antiviral testing program in Melbourne, Victoria. PTX signed the research agreement with the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunology after coming out of a trading halt on Tuesday. They have also pledged $70,000 in funding.

With all eyes on gold at the moment, now is an exciting time for gold exploration company North Stawell Minerals which has announced the launch of its Initial Public Offer (IPO).

AuTECO Minerals’ (ASX: AUT) is reviving one of Canada’s most prolific gold mining regions, Ontario. The emerging mineral exploration company is currently focused on its first high-grade gold drilling project at Pickle Crow, Ontario, a site with a resource estimate of 830,000oz at 11.6g per tonne.

With gold currently up 18% YTD and outperforming many asset classes, it looks like the precious metal’s time has come again. Westgold (ASX: WGX), one of Australia’s top 10 gold producers, is primed for the uptick.

Is the COVID-19 pandemic a “great equaliser,” as New York governor Andrew Cuomo put it? Or could it be widening the wealth gap, pushing people out of the middle class? When US unemployment hit 14.7% in April, millions of Americans applied for unemployment benefits while thousands went on rent strikes and car lines for food banks stretched for miles. If you looked closely at the cars in those lines, you’d see something that suggested this was a very different kind of recession. Amongst the beaten up Corollas, there were shiny new BMWs and Mercedes – beacons of the aspirational middle class.

In Gold We Trust. Not for the first time in the long history of the lustrous metal, gold is living up to its status as both a store of value and a safe harbour in times of markets and geopolitical foment. For investors, the question is not so much whether they should have at least some exposure to the yellow metal – but how.

Right now in Australia we have the Australian Government’s massive jobkeeper programme keeping millions “employed”. We have big banks deferring and pausing the repayments on millions of loans. Trillions of dollars has been accessed early from super funds. Just about every other industry is doing its level best to chip in and bend over backwards to help flatten the recession curve through to a place and time where the economy can reopen again.

Independent Investment Research (IIR) recently authored a special investment report on pre-clinical oncology company Prescient Therapeutics (ASX: PTX) which gives great insight into the company and the progress they’ve made in recent months. 

Small to medium-sized enterprises make up around 90% of global business but 80% still don’t have an online presence where they can promote their offerings. AppsVillage (ASX: APV) offers a simple and low-cost way for SMBs to create apps and advertise directly to their audiences via their phones.

Immuno-oncology (I-O) cancer medications have seen a big leap forward in the past few decades. Yet they face a major obstacle – while many I-O drugs are highly effective in treating certain cancers such as melanoma and lung cancer, they don’t have much success in treating other forms of cancer (eg. breast, ovarian, prostate, bowel).

In highly uncertain times like these most experts would advise investment in gold or stocks. So which one is most likely to perform in a pandemic economy?