Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Friday

• ASX to rise after a tech-led rally on Wall Street
• Meta jumps by 18% following strong user numbers
• Aussie dollar is back to below US71c

ASX to rise as Wall Street rallies

The ASX 200 is set to open much higher this morning, with the ASX 200 June futures pointing up by 1.85% at 8am AEDT.

This comes following a super bullish session on Wall Street overnight, where Tech led a broad-brushed rally in US stocks.

Nasdaq was up by more than 3%, while the S&P 500 and Dow index closed around 2% higher.

Meta was the pacesetter amongst Big Tech, gaining 18% after adding more users than projected in the first quarter, as announced yesterday.

Amazon plunged 10% after the bell after reporting a sluggish second-quarter sales growth, while Apple jumped 5% after record second quarter profits that beat estimates.

After surging to as high as US75c earlier this month, the Aussie dollar has been spiralling downwards as China’s lockdowns threatened demand for commodities. As of writing, the AUD/USD is trading at just a touch below US71c.

In commodities, oil prices rose by 3% on reports that Germany would back any EU ban on Russian oil if it was done gradually. The German shift has now increased the likelihood of a bloc-wide embargo, with a decision to be announced as early as next week.

To cryptos, where Bitcoin was up 1.5% to trade at US$39,745 at 8.30am AEDT.

According to Finder’s latest Bitcoin Price Predictions report, Bitcoin (BTC) should crack an all-time high in 2022, peaking above US$80k.

Read the rest of that story here on Coinhead.
 

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Delorean Corp (ASX:DEL)
Delorean’s Engineering Division has been awarded a contract for delivery of Yarra Valley Water’s $45 million bioenergy facility. In addition to design and construction, the contract includes operations and maintenance by Delorean for a two-year period, totalling $7.3 million.

Pointerra (ASX:3DP)
In the March quarter, Pointerra’s annual contract value (ACV) totalled US$16.3 million (as at 29 April 2022), up US$1.9 million from the 31 January 2022 ACV level of US$14.4 million. Deployment of material contracts in the US energy utility sector contributed to a $1.9 million lift in ACV.

Green Tech Metals (ASX:GT1)
Current drilling activity at North Aubry lithium deposit at Seymour returned a thick, maiden intercept of 40m @ 1.54% Li2O. The company says the deposit extended down dip and along strike with further thick, high-grade intercepts.

K-TIG (ASX:KTG)
The welding company recorded a record quarterly revenue of $1.159m, which was a 10% growth over the last quarter and 148% on pcp. This growth was mainly achieved through direct sales and distributors actively selling K-TIG systems.

SSH Group (ASX:SSH)
The SSH group revenue was $26m, up 41% on pcp. The company’s YTD revenue came in at $78m, and already exceeds the FY21 full year result of $70m, with a full quarter remaining.