Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Friday

The ASX is set to open higher on Friday
Wall Street and European stock markets rallied overnight
Oil and Bitcoin have also climbed back up

The ASX 200 is set to extend Thursday’s gains, with the July futures index pointing higher by 0.80% at 8am AEST.

Overnight, the UK FTSE 100 index rose 1% after PM Boris Johnson resigned.

Harsh, but fair.

BREAKING: Following his resignation, Boris Johnson has escaped to the sea. pic.twitter.com/mMQdUCHTw9

— BCC News ➐ (@bccbreaking) July 7, 2022

Other European stock markets and Wall Street also rose as investors scaled back expectations of a super aggressive rate hike path by the Fed.

Minutes from the central bank’s June policy meeting had revealed that Fed members judged an increase of 50 or 75 basis points would be enough at the July’s policy meeting, a lower range than what many experts predict.

The narrowing of the US trade deficit to $85.5 billion in May, the lowest level of 2022, also lifted market sentiment overnight.

The S&P 500 was up by 1.50% while the tech heavy Nasdaq index surged by over 2%. Chipmakers were among the tech winners as Samsung reported a 21% sales jump in revenue for the full year.

Meanwhile, oil has headed back above US$100 a barrel, with Brent spiking back up by 4% to US$104.30.

Some experts believe yesterday’s 10% slump in oil prices wasn’t justified.

“While the odds of a recession are indeed rising, it is premature for the oil market to be succumbing to such concerns,” said Leith van Onselen, chief economist at MB Fund.

“The global economy is still growing with the rise in oil demand this year set to significantly outperform GDP growth, buttressed by the post-Covid reopening in Asia-Pacific as well as the resumption in international travel,” he added.

To cryptos, where Bitcoin has rallied to its highest level this week, up over 6% in the last 24 hours to US$21,635. Ethereum is also pumping, and Celsius has reportedly repaid its BTC loan, with most top coins also having a good day.

Just a relief-rally pump? Possibly. Read the rest of the story here at Coinhead.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

TNG (ASX:TNG)
TNG has received a Letter of Support from Export Finance Australia for up to $300 million of debt funding for the construction of TNG’s flagship 100% owned Mount Peake Vanadium-Titanium-Iron project in the NT. The Mount Peake Project is one of only 15 Australian critical minerals projects identified by the Australian Government in its critical minerals priority road map.

Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8)
BC8 has released additional results from previous drilling at Paulsens Gold Operation. Results include: 1.42m @ 102.37g/t Au from 19.34m, and 6.19m @ 15.86g/t Au from 23.72m.

St Barbara (ASX:SBM)
Gold miner St Barbara has reported a strong June quarter FY22, with all three provinces (Leonora, Atlantic, and Simberi) achieving guidance. Total Group gold production for the June quarter FY22 was 86.4koz, representing a 40% quarter-on-quarter increase. Total Group gold production for the full year was 281koz, meeting its FY22 production guidance.

GBM Resources (ASX:GBZ)
Excellent results continue to be returned for GBM’s initial 309 deposit drill program with two further holes returning 56m @ 2.8g/t Au from 121m, and 78m @ 1.31g/t Au from 249m.

Tesoro Gold (ASX:TSO)
Two diamond drill rigs have commenced drilling at the Ternera Gold Deposit. Drilling aims to rapidly increase gold resources and upgrade resource classifications at the 1.1Moz Ternera deposit, which is open in all directions.