Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Monday

Tech stocks push Wall Street near all-time highs

All major US indices rose on Friday to close near their all-time highs, with tech stocks being the main driver.

The Dow Jones rose by 0.52%, just 0.1% shy of its all-time high. S&P 500 climbed by 0.88%, to be just 3 points below its all-time high.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq also rose by 1.47%, with Tesla, Apple and Microsoft leading the charge.

In other markets, oil prices continued their climb, with Brent crude trading higher again by almost 1%.

Bitcoin is trading lower at US$35,900 at 8am AEDT, from the US$39,000 on Thursday.

Closer to home

The ASX 200 closed higher by 0.49% on Friday, just shy of its highest ever level.

The energy index was the best performing sector last week, on the back of strong oil prices.

Medical devices company, Trajan Group, will make its IPO debut today. The company, which was started by a husband and wife team in 2011, has raised $90m in the IPO and will list at $1.70 for a market cap of $220m.

In big cap news, Crown Resorts (ASX:CWN) and SkyCity Entertainment (ASX:SKC) have both been notified by AUSTRAC of potential serious non-compliance issues at both companies’ operations.

The anti-money laundering regulatory body said it has found irregularities at SkyCity Adelaide and Crown Resort’s Perth operations.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Telix Pharma (ASX:TLX)
Telix said that its European subsidiary, Advanced Nuclear Medicine Ingredients, was given around $1.56m in a joint grant from the EUREKA Association. The grant was given jointly with Swedish radiopharmaceutical production company Alpha Therapy, and will be used to develop a novel anti-cancer Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT) using the alpha-particle emitting radioisotope, astatine-211.

Global Energy Ventures (ASX:GEV)
The company has commenced the development of a pilot-scale C-H2 Ship with a cargo capacity of 430 tonnes of hydrogen. The addition of this ship will, amongst others, enable GEV to achieve its target of an operating fleet of C-H2 vessels by mid-2020s.

Jcurve Solutions (ASX:JCS)
The cloud software company announced the acquisition of the business assets of Creative Quest, a Philippines registered company. Creative Quest has been JCS’s outsourced digital marketing agency since August 2020, and is aggressively targeting a mix of local and international customers to achieve significant business growth.

Minbos (ASX:MNB)
The exploration company has lodged an Australian provisional patent application for a new phosphate rock fertiliser blend, with the potential to produce a 100% organic phosphate fertiliser using less reactive phosphate rocks.

Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE)
The company announced that drilling at the highly prospective Piccadilly Gold project in North Qld has commenced over the weekend. The initial program will cover approximately 23 locations with over 2500m of RC holes.