Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Friday

The ASX 200 will open Friday lower
Wall Street and European stock markets fall overnight
Iron ore price sinks another 8% as traders nervously await China data today

The ASX is poised to open Friday lower by 0.80%, as major indices on Wall Street fell 0.40% after paring bigger losses late in the session.

All major European stocks also fell around 2%, with Italy’s FTSE MIB index sinking 3.4% after PM Mario Draghi resigned with his government collapsing.

Iron ore took a big tumble, down by 8% to $100.25 a tonne. BHP shares in New York slid by 4%, while Rio also fell 6%.

The iron ore has dropped with most other metals overnight, but sentiment about Chinese growth is still the main driver for the price.

Later today, China will release a raft of data including property sales, industrial production, and the crucial Q2 GDP.

Share prices of major US banks fell as JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley reported weak quarterly earnings.

Oil has slumped by another 1%, while gold slipped 1.5% to US$1,710 an ounce. The gold price has been falling due to a rising US dollar and hawkish sentiment surrounding the US Fed.

Bitcoin has risen above US$20k again, trading at US$20,491 at 8.30am AEST.

Meanwhile, crypto lender Celsius has detailed the extent of its collapse in a court filing. According to documents, it had US$1.19 billion deficit on its balance sheet (liabilities higher than assets).

On the ASX this morning, giant logistics tech company Wisetech Global (ASX:WTC) said its FY22 revenue is expected to be at the top end of the $600m–$635m guided range. The expected FY22 EBITDA range has also increased to $310m–$320m, from $275m–$295m.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Jumbo Interactive (ASX:JIN)
Jumbo expects its preliminary FY22 Group underlying results to reflect the following: Revenue up 27% on pcp to $103.8 million, and underlying NPAT up 16% to $31.6 million.

Rewardle Holdings (ASX:RXH)
The fintech has established a $290k financing facility for its FY22 R&D activity with specialist R&D lender Radium Capital. The FY22 R&D financing provides it with working capital that will be used to accelerate the development of its growth initiatives.

BCI Minerals (ASX:BCI)
BCI CEO Alwyn Vorster has decided to step down from his position by the end of 2022, after more than six years in the role. The board will commence a search process for a new CEO, as part of an orderly transition process.

Pentanet (ASX:5GG)
The telco company has entered into Master Access Agreement with Axicom in support of the planned network expansion. The signing of this agreement will assist Pentanet in the next phase of growth plans with Axicom, to enable neXus and 5G products to be rolled out across the rest of their network in Western Australia.

Podium Minerals (ASX:POD)
The platinum explorer says interim results received from nine holes from the Stage 10 programme of the Parks Reef Exploration Target include: 6m at 1.39g/t 3E PGM and 25m at 1.29g/t 3E PGM.

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