Wall Street sets record highs again on Friday as Bitcoin tumbles

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed at record highs again on Friday, gaining by 0.5% and 0.4% respectively.

Tech heavy NASDAQ also closed 0.1% higher, and is now just 0.3% shy of its record high set in February.

Technology stocks have been the overperformers so far in April, with the sector rising by 8%, compared to S&P 500’s rise of 5%. The key driver has been the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, which has fallen by 15 basis points in April to trade now at 1.58%.

Key corporate earnings will come out this week, which will indicate whether or not the US economy is on its way to recovery. Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Netflix and Proctor & Gamble will release their earnings this week.

In other markets, oil dropped by 0.5%, while iron ore rose by 2c to $US178.43 a tonne.
 

Bitcoin tumbles

Bitcoin has crashed by around 15 per cent, the biggest intraday drop since February.

The BTC price is currently trading at US$56,300 level at 8am AEDT.

Reports have suggested that the crypto fell as the US Treasury announced it was planning to look into financial institutions for potential money laundering carried out through digital assets.

The blackout in China’s XinJiang province was also cited as the reason for the fall. The province powers a huge chunk of mining activities in Bitcoin.
 

4 ASX small caps to watch today

Propell (ASX:PHL)
Newly listed fintech Propell announced the launch of instant invoice payment capability, representing a new product feature on the Propell Platform to complement the existing payment products. This new capability allows SME customers to accept instant online invoice payments by embedding a payment option directly into the electronic invoice issued to their end customers.

Australian Potash (ASX:APC)
The miner has received Green Loan verification for the debt issued to partly fund the development of the Lake Wells Sulphate of Potash Project. The verification is in line with the Green Loan Principles 2021 adopted by the Loan Market Association (LMA), and the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association (APMLA). The company also says that Export Finance Australia has obtained conditional credit approval to provide a $45 million senior debt facility to the company.

Allegra Orthopaedics (ASX:AMT)
The company announced it has engaged Robert Bell to lead the Technology and Innovation Division. Prior to Allegra, Bell outperformed in leadership positions across both public blue chip and private SME organisations within orthopaedics. The company says Bell will play a pivotal role as Allegra moves closer to obtaining FDA 510k clearance as it plans to enter the North American spinal implant market, which accounts for a 40% revenue share of the global market, approximately US$7.4 billion.

Intra Energy (ASX:IEC)
The company says it has received a payment of US$100,000 from an African-based financial services company active in the mining sector for the exclusive right to investigate the possibility of a merger or acquisition of IEC’s subsidiary Intra Energy (Tanzania) Limited in Africa. The exclusive right will be valid for six weeks and will involve due diligence activities and discussions with management.