Market highlights and 4 ASX small caps to watch on Friday

Wall street rallies as US jobless claims drop

All major indices in the US rose, as a drop in the latest jobs claims shows the country may be on the verge of recovery.

President Biden also triggered a late rally in the markets, when he said the economic outlook is brightening.

Dow Jones was up 0.62%, S&P 500 rose by 0.52%, while tech heavy NASDAQ also rose 0.12%.

Nevertheless, it still shows that the market is still confused, as rotations go back and forth between growth and cyclical stocks.

Shares in reddit favourite, GameStop, surged 53% overnight, after plunging more than 30% the previous day.

In other markets, the oil price dropped by 4%, after rising 6% yesterday due to the Suez canal passage accident. It was reported that the 400m Ever Given ship may take weeks to free, blocking one of the world’s busiest shipping channels for oil and grain.

The 10-year US treasuries are steady at 1.62%.

Bitcoin is trading at USD$52,300 at 8am AEDT, dropping from a USD$54,000 level yesterday. This comes even after Elon Musk tweeted that Bitcoin paid for Tesla car purchases will not be converted to fiat.

Closer to home

The latest DFAT figures show that trade with China across all industries has dropped by 40 per cent since the trade fallout began, when iron ore is removed from the data.

AMP (ASX:AMP) shares are in a trading halt, after dropping by 3.6 per cent when news circulated that CEO Francesco De Ferrari would leave his post. AMP subsequently issued an announcement to say that he is still in the job.

Pointsbet (ASX:PBH) announced that it has secured betting and iGaming market access in Pennsylvania and Mississippi, after agreeing to a deal wth Penn National Gaming Inc.

4 ASX small caps to watch today

MMA Offshore (ASX:MRM)
MMA has secured three offshore wind contracts in Taiwan. The three contracts, with firm periods totalling 270 days, increase the company’s contracted revenue by an aggregate total of approximately A$7 million.

Mad Paws (ASX:MPA)
The online pet marketplace is set to make its IPO debut on the ASX today, at 20c a share. Mad Paws was founded in 2014 and its primary business is a pet care services market place which has had over 180,000 services booked since it launched.

Maca Ltd (ASX:MLD)
The mining construction company announced it has now finalised the Hire and Maintenance contract for CITIC Pacific Mining, at the Cape Preston Sino Iron magnetite project, located in the Pilbara region. The contract is expected to generate $200 million in revenue for MACA over a 36-month term commencing in April 2021.

Kyckr (ASX:KYK)
Fraud tech company, Kyckr, has signed a deal with a global Top 15 life insurance company.The 12-month contract will integrate Kyckr’s technology with the Customer Lifecycle Management platform, providing the insurance company with all aspects of client lifecycle. Neither name nor contract value has been disclosed.