Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Monday

Wall Street rose ahead of world centrals banks meeting this week

All three US stock market indexes bounced back on Friday, ahead of this week’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, a virtual meeting of world central banks leaders held between 26-28 August.

The Dow Jones rose by 0.65%, S&P500 by 0.81%, and tech heavy Nasdaq by 1.19%.

The oil price has continued its recent losses, falling by another 2%% on Friday on global demand concerns. Brent crude is now trading at US$65.18/barrel.

Meanwhile, the crypto market is surging and Bitcoin rallied to US$48,900 level at 8:00am AEST, from the US$46,500 level on Friday.

Cardano has become the biggest crypto to recover from the May 20 crash, with the No. 3 crypto surging nearly 20 per cent to a new all-time high.

ASX 200 to open higher on Monday

The ASX 200 looks set to open higher his morning, with futures markets (September contracts) pointing down up 0.18% at 8:30am AEST.

On Friday, the Aussie benchmark index closed 0.05% lower, but lost 2.2% for the week. The ASX Emerging Companies Index also lost 5% for the week.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Impedimed (ASX:IPD)
The medical software tech company announced that SOZO has received a US FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for renal failure. SOZO is a bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) platform that provides an exact measure of fluid volume to remove during a dialysis session.

Prospa Group (ASX:PGL)
The fintech lender reported record quarter originations of $183m, which is an all-time record for the company. PGL generated an EBITDA of $0.4m for the full year, which is a significant improvement from the $15.8m loss in FY20.

CycloPharm (ASX:CYC)
The medtech company recorded $8.5m in total revenues for the half, up by 47% on the previous corresponding period (pcp). CYC has maintained its interim dividend at 0.5c a share.

McGrath Ltd (ASX:MEA)
The real estate services company announced $122.4m in full year revenues, up by 34% on pcp. McGrath also reported a bottom line full year NPAT of $19m, up from $0.7m in the pcp.

MACA Ltd (ASX:MLD)
The mining services company reported a 45% increase in full year revenue to $1.175b, a record for the firm, for an underlying NPAT of $38.8m. MACA also expects FY22 to be even better with a forecast revenue of $1.4b.