Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Friday

Wall Street wobbles on tax hike

All three major indices in the US fell overnight, after a report saying that the Biden administration may increase the capital gains tax on wealthy individuals.

The Dow Jones fell 0.94%, the S&P500 was down by 0.92%, and the tech heavy NASDAQ also slipped by 0.94%. The S&P500 is now down 1.2 per cent for the week, after setting a record last Friday.

It was broad brush sell-off, with big tech names like Tesla, Apple, and Amazon also down by more than 1 per cent.

In other markets, iron ore has retreated again by 2.4 per cent to US$183.62, after hiking to a 10-year high earlier this week.

Oil is higher by 0.5%, while the benchmark 10-year treasury yield fell slightly to 1.54%.

Bitcoin has fallen to US$51,900 level at 8am AEDT, from the US$54,000 level yesterday. A JP Morgan analyst, in a note to clients that was reported on Bloomberg, has sounded off a warning on the crypto, saying that with the recent selloff, “momentum signals will naturally decay from here for several months, given their still elevated level.”

Closer to home

The ASX200 is set to open lower today on the back of US equities rout. The index had closed higher by 0.83 per cent on Thursday.

AMP (ASX:AMP) has just announced its intention to pursue a demerger of AMP Capital’s private markets investment management business. This came a day after the wealth manager reported that AMP Capital’s asset under management fell by 1.7 per cent to $186.5 billion in the last quarter.

The previously proposed sale of the unit to US-based Ares Management is also now off the table.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Douugh (ASX:DOU)
The fintech company is announcing the launch of its instant bank account funding feature, in collaboration with Stripe Inc. The company says this feature will allow Douugh to accelerate its rate of customer activation, coupled with the recent launch of instant virtual debit card issuing in partnership with Mastercard.

OneView Healthcare (ASX:ONE)
The medtech company is reporting that receipts from customers increased by 64 per cent during the quarter to EUR 2.82 million. The company has also improved its cashflow position, with cash outflow decreasing by 82 per cent on pcp.

Prospa (ASX:PGL)
The fintech company has just reported a solid 3Q FY21. Total loan originations have returned to pre-COVID levels. The quarter’s originations were $121 million, which was a big increase from last quarter’s $100.7 million.

Rewardle Holdings (ASX:RXH)
SME-focused digital and social media company, Rewardle has been issued options to acquire Beanhunter shares at $350k valuation within three years, giving Rewardle a 51% shareholding in Beanhunter on a fully diluted basis. Beanhunter is Australia’s leading online community for independent cafes and coffee lovers, which Rewardle has been working with for the past two years.

Prescient Therapeutics (ASX:PTX)
The clinical stage oncology company announced that its Phase 1B clinical study of PTX-200 and cytarabine in patients with acute myeloid leukemia successfully completed the second cohort at 35 mg/m2 PTX-200 under the modified study protocol, with no dose limiting toxicities observed. The study has now progressed to the next dose level of 45 mg/m2 PTX-200.