Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Friday

Wall Street mixed on the eve of ‘triple witching’ day

US stock markets were mixed overnight, ahead of the ‘triple witching’ day tomorrow.

Triple Witching is the day when three derivatives contracts expire. In the US, this happens on the third Friday of every March, June, September, and December.

The Dow Jones fell by 0.18%, S&P500 by 0.16%, but the tech heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.13%.

US jobless claims rose by 20,000 to 332,000 last week, which was slightly worse than what economists expected.

Mining stocks fell across the board as commodity prices took a little plunge.

Spot iron ore shaved another 6%, and is now trading at just US$106.50, down from its record levels of US$233/t in May.

Other metals like copper and nickel also fell by 3%.

Eurozone shares +0.6%
US shares -0.2%, Nasdaq +0.1%
US 10 yr yld +4bp to 1.34%
Oil -0.1% to $72.6
Gold -2.3% to $1753.4
Iron ore -6.1% to $106.5, now down -52% from its May high
ASX futures -0.2% $A 0.7295 with $US index +0.4%

— Shane Oliver (@ShaneOliverAMP) September 16, 2021

To cryptos, where Bitcoin is trading at US$47,650 at 8:00am AEST this morning, fromUS$47,100 on Thursday.

Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio told CNBC that regulators would eventually “try to kill” Bitcoin if it became too successful.

Meawnhile, Aussie baby boomers investing in cryptos are on the rise in Australia, according to a report by the BTC Market exchange.

ASX 200 to open lower on Friday

The ASX 200 looks set to open lower his morning, with futures markets (September contracts) pointing down by 0.26% at 8:30am AEST.

Yesterday, the Aussie benchmark lifted by 0.58% to close at 7,460 points.

ASX uranium stocks continued to move higher yesterday, as the yellowcake frenzy intensified with spot uranium prices marching onwards toward ~US$50 per pound.

In large caps news this morning, Air New Zealand (ASX:AIZ) says travel restrictions are costing it between $NZ45m to $NZ55m a month. As a result, the airlines said it has drawn another $NZ435m on its government debt facility.

That grim picture might be similar down under, with the Australian quarterly tourism labour statistics to be released today.

On the IPO front, three stocks will make their debut on the ASX today.

Set to list at 12pm AEST is NSW explorer Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB).

They’ll be followed by SSH Group (ASX:SSH) which provides security and labour hire to the construction, mining, civil and government market sectors in Western Australia.

And finally, Way2VAT (ASX:W2V) will list at 1pm AEST.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Lithium Australia (ASX:LIT)
The company says the popularity of cobalt-free batteries continues to grow as lithium market hits new high. LIT’s subsidiary VSPC is now progressing its plans to establish a strategic position in the market for cobalt- and nickel-free lithium-ion batteries.

Heavy Minerals (ASX:HVY)
The company has engaged a drilling contractor and will commence a 12,000 m, 300-hole Air Core program drilling on September 21st at its wholly owned Port Gregory Garnet Project near Geraldton, WA. The drilling program will last for approximately three months and consist of 12,000m or ~300 Air-Core holes.

Manhattan Corp (ASX:MHC)
The exploration company is planning to re-commence RC drilling at its1 00% owned, high grade Tibooburra Gold Project from early October. MHC anticipates drilling to span multiple campaigns until mid-2022 targeting high grade prospect areas.

Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR)
The company announced that due to scheduling changes by a shipping services provider, approximately 12kt of natural graphite sales from its Balama Graphite project in Mozambique planned to ship in late September 2021 has been delayed to October 2021.

Mincor Resources (ASX:MCR)
Two significant new high-grade massive sulphide nickel intersections have been identified, extending the recently discovered mineralisation at its emerging Hartley prospect in SA. Assay results include: 1.4m @ 3.0 % Ni, and 4.5m @ 3.3 % Ni.