Market highlights and 4 ASX small caps to watch on Thursday

Wall Street mixed ahead of Biden speech

The Dow Jones was down slightly by 0.26%, while S&P 500 rose by 0.36%.

NASDAQ also rose by 1.54%, and is now just 7% shy of its all-time highs. Apple rose by 1.62% after an upgrade from UBS to a “buy”. Tesla was the standout, rising by 5%.

The market is waiting for a speech from Biden later today, where he will detail the new $3 trillion package. Where the money will come from is the main question on everybody’s minds. A corporate tax hike from the current 21 per cent to 28 per cent could be a possibility.

Meanwhile the much anticipated IPO debut of food delivery comopany, Deliveroo, on the London Stock Exchange turned out to be an anti-climax as the stock slumped 30 per cent on its first day of trading.

In other markets, oil rose slightly by 0.2%, iron ore down by 0.9%, and 10-year yield was down slightly to 1.74%.

Bitcoin is steady at USD$58,900 at 8am AEDT. Soros’ fund management says that the crypto is at an “inflecton point”, as the company starts to make investments in the coins.

Closer to home

AMP (ASX:AMP) has lost its CEO Francesco de Ferrari, after he resigned from the role. ANZ deputy chief Alexis George will become the new CEO starting in the third quarter of the year.

Mining tech company, Orica (ASX:ORI) also announced a new CEO, Sanjeev Gandhi.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Douugh (ASX:DOU)
Fintech Douugh is set to open higher this morning, after announcing that it has been granted a licence to launch wealth management services in the US. This will allow it to offer a range of wealth services through its Wealth Jars offfering, including its Robo Advice and Trading platforms.

Identitii (ASX:ID8)
Shares in the fintech company are also set to rise this morning, following an announcement that has renewed the original contract with HSBC that was signed in 2017. The renewed contract is worth up to $2 million over three years. Under the renewed contract, Identitii will continue to support HSBC’s Digital Accounts Receivables Tool (HSBC DART), which is built on Identitii’s technology.

Fluence Corp (ASX:FLC)
The water tech company has been awarded its first volume contract for the Yangtze River Great Protection Program. The orders are worth an aggregate of US$2.2 million, and it will work with other Chinese companies to implement treatment systems in 14 towns and rural townships in the Hunan province.

Zoono (ASX:ZNO)
The biotech company says its Zoono Microbe Shield successfully tested in the USA against Human Coronavirus 229E. It has signed new distributors and supply agreements, including with Boeing partners to distribute Microbe Shield to airlines globally.