Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Friday

ASX to rise as Wall Street closes higher

All three major US indexes finished higher in another broad rally overnight – the S&P 500 and Dow rose by 1.23% each, and tech heavy Nasdaq by 1.33%.

Investors have been coming back to the market as the hawkish stance taken by the US Fed yesterday provided no new negative surprises.

News that US President Joe Biden is scheduled to talk with China’s Xi Jinping today, and Russian bonds averting a default yesterday have also put positive sentiment back on to the markets.

Oil prices meanwhile have climbed back above US$100, with the benchmark Brent crude trading at around US$107/barrel.

“Oil remains vulnerable to another spike lower on positive Ukraine developments. Key support is at $96.00 or Brent crude and the $91.50 region for WTI,” said senior market analyst at Oanda, Jeffrey Halley.

With pressure mounting on the RBA to hike rates following the best jobless print since 2008, the Aussie dollar touched US74c briefly before retreating back to US 73.75c at the time of writing.

Bitcoin has fallen slightly to US$40,750 from the US$41k level yesterday.

Read our roundup of crypto moves here on Coinhead.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

The ASX 200 is set to open higher this morning, with the April futures pointing up by 0.37% at 8.30am AEDT.

Yesterday, local shares finished 1% higher, driven by excitement over the low jobless print of 4%. The ASX Tech index rose 3% again, the second consecutive day of 3% gain.

Here’s the 5 small cap stocks to watch today:

The Environmental Group (ASX:EGL)
The energy sector services company signed a $49m deal with Turmec Engineering for the construction of waste recycling solution. EGL will also will design and supply the dust extraction system for Turmec, with a value of over $1.5 million.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (ASX:KAL)
Scheduled diamond drilling is now underway at the La Mascotte prospect within KAL’s Bulong Taurus project. The planned holes will complement recent RC drill programs with some of the new diamond holes to be drilled adjacent to pending RC results.

Family Zone Cyber Safety (ASX:FZO)
The consumer cyber tech company said that for the first time, its US operations have surpassed 1 million student licences in “proof of concept” trials. A “proof of concept” or POC refers to the trial of technology prior to purchase, and FZO said it has now built a record $8.5 million in total sales pipeline.

Wellnex Life (ASX:WNX)
The consumer health product company signed a 3-year deal with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Trading Services (GSK) for the supply of GSK’s soft gel liquid analgesic in Australia and NZ. GSK is one of the world’s largest and leading global consumer healthcare companies.

M3 Mining (ASX:M3M)
M3M has completed soil sampling program at the Edjudina Gold Project, ahead of its maiden drilling campaign. The company has also appointed highly regarded mining professionals Ziggy Lubieniecki and Chris Newman to provide geological and exploration services.