Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Monday

Wall Street was lower for the week

US stocks rebounded on Friday, but finished the week lower after an inflation data-triggered selloff on Wednesday.

All three US stocks benchmarks rose, led by tech – the Dow Jones by 0.5%, the S&P 500 by 0.72%, and tech-heavyNasdaq by 1%.

All major tech giants rose between 1-4%, while Johnson & Johnson announced that it will split its business into two separately listed stocks – the consumer and the pharmaceutical businesses.

Meanwhile, the world’s biggest online shopping festival known as the 11.11 Singles Day event in China held by Alibaba, generated US $115.8 billion in sales during the 11-day campaign.

But that figure was 8.5% lower than the previous year, and was the lowest since the event began in 2009.

In other markets, the spot iron ore price is up another 3.1% to $US89.69 a tonne, while oil prices fell 1%.

To cryptos, where Bitcoin is trading lower US$64,000 at 8am AEDT, down from US$65,000 on Friday.

A future yield protocol that Apollo Capital has described as one of the most interesting projects in DeFi is migrating from the congested and expensive Ethereum network to Avalanche, its cheaper and speedier competitor.

Read the rest of that story here on Stockhead.

ASX 200 to open lower on Monday

The ASX 200 looks set to open lower this morning, with futures markets (December contracts) pointing down by 0.1% at 8:30am AEDT.

Last week, the local index had a positive finish although it was in negative territory for the week.

And in case you missed it on Stockhead last week, magnesium madness has taken hold and Latrobe Magnesium (ASX:LMG) is front and centre as investors pile into the sector. The LMG stock price rocketed 110% during the week.

On the IPO front, listing today is Resilience Mining Mongolia (ASX:RM1), a gold and copper explorer in Mongolia that raised $6m at 20c a share.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Regional Express (ASX:REX)
Rex has today announced the launch of double-daily flights between Melbourne and Brisbane from next month. Brisbane becomes the fifth capital city destination in the Rex domestic network, enabling the airline to take a major step towards realising its goal of servicing the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ (Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane).

SRJ Tech (ASX:SRJ)
SRJ has made further progress with the development of its hydrogen compatible pipe technology. The project kick-off has commenced with a detailed analysis of the future hydrogen market, the demand for leak sealing, mechanical connectors, isolation, repair and integrity solutions that can deal with the complexities of handling hydrogen.

Immutep (ASX:IMM)
The company has received a Chinese patent for its LAG-3 related immunotherapy treatments, following the corresponding European and US patents announced in 2018 through to 2021.

Ardea Resources (ASX:ARL)
The company has provided an update to its Goongarrie Hub feasibility study, saying that the modelled leach feed grade is currently 1% Ni and 0.07% Co, reflecting the 0.8% Ni cut-off resource grade.

Far Limited (ASX:FAR)
Drilling has commenced on the Bambo-1 exploration well in Block A2, offshore The Gambia. The Bambo-1 well is located approximately 85km offshore The Gambia, in 930 meters of water depth and is planned to be drilled to a depth of approximately 3,400 meters.