US stocks continue slide despite strong GDP

Wall Street moved further down into correction territory, despite the US recording its strongest economic growth in almost 40 years.

The US GDP expanded at a quarterly increase of 1.7% or an annualised rate of 6.9%, the highest level since 1984.

But all three major US stockmarket indexes fell overnight – the S&P 500 by 0.54%, the Dow Jones by 0.02%, and tech heavy Nasdaq by 1.40%.

The Nasdaq index was dragged down by Tesla which plunged by 11.55%, despite the company reporting a record fourth quarter and full year earnings.

Investors were concerned about Tesla’s guidance for 2022, which warned that “equipment capacity, operational efficiency and the capacity and stability of the supply chain” could become factors preventing the company from hitting this year’s targets.

Additionally, investors weren’t impressed by Tesla’s decision not to produce a $25k price range EV in 2022.

In commodities market, most prices including oil fell overnight. Brent crude and spot iron ore were down 0.4%, while gold lost 1.3%.

Bitcoin fell another 3%, and is trading at US$35,700 at 8.30am AEDT.

Meanwhile, Binance Australia added another 300,000 Aussie customers in the past half-year to grow to a user base of 800,000 — and it has big plans for them, says chief executive Leigh Travers.

Read the rest of that story here on Coinhead.

 

ASX 200 to open higher on Friday

After falling by almost 5% since last Friday, the ASX 200 index looks set to stage a rebound this morning, with futures markets (February contracts) pointing up by 1.5% at 8:30am AEDT.

Yesterday, the local index shed another 125 points or 1.8% to a shiny new 100-day low.

All eyes are now on the Feb 1 RBA meeting following a shock 3.5% CPI print released on Tuesday.

In large cap news this morning, sleep device specialist ResMed (ASX:RMD) posted a 12% increase in its Q4 profit to $US201.8 million.

On the IPO front, set to list today is Firebrick Pharma (ASX:FRE).

This company developed a nasal spray medicine that targets the viral cause of the common cold, and is scheduled to list at 12:30pm AEDT. It raised ~$7m at 20c per share.
 

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Cann Group (ASX:CAN)
The cannabis company’s December quarter revenue was up 65% on the previous quarter to $2.06m. Sales growth was driven by strong demand in the domestic B2B business, with over 13,000 units shipped during the quarter, a near doubling of last quarter’s shipments.

X2M Connect (ASX:X2M)
The IoT specialist’s Q2 revenue was $3m, up 31% on previous corresponding period (pcp). Total revenues for the first half were $4.6m, up 44% on pcp.

Delta Drone (ASX:DLT)
The company will divest its asset, ParaZero, which operates a drone safety business for a total consideration of $6m in cash. Delta says the transaction will allow it to focus on its core strategy of becoming one of the leading drone service providers globally.

Fluence Corp (ASX:FLC)
The water company’s Q4 2021 revenues were $43.5m, up 117% on Q3 2021 and 113% on Q4 2020. This meant that its full year FY2021 revenue was $103.2m, which grew by 18% over FY2020.

Auric Mining (ASX:AWJ)
The Munda Gold Deposit estimate of resources(indicated and inferred) has been increased to 4.481M tonnes at 1.38g/t at a 0.5gpt cut-off for 198,700 oz Au, an increase of 14%. Around 82% of the Munda resources are now in the Indicated category.