Tech stocks plunge on Wall Street

Risk-off sentiment dominated the US stockmarket last week with another tech selloff on Friday.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 2.72%, taking its loss for the week to over 6%. The other two major benchmarks also fell, the Dow Jones by 1.3% and S&P 500 by 1.89%.

Netflix plummeted 22% after it reported the lowest number of new subscribers in the first quarter in more than a decade as competition intensifies.

And although the benchmark 10 year treasury rate retreated to 1.76%  from Thursday’s 2-year high of 1.83%, the market is still nervous about how much the Fed will raise rates this year. This Tuesday’s Fed’s meeting is expected to reveal the central bank’s plan.

Meanwhile, the crypto market has suffered a meltdown along with the fall in equities, losing around US$1 trillion in overall market value in the last few days.

At 8.30am AEDT, Bitcoin is trading at US$35,200 after falling by around 30% in the past month.

Time to panic sell? Keep in mind, the market was celebrating some of these price levels about four or five months ago.

Plus, there is still a lot of positivity for crypto from the big spenders in the space…

Read the rest of that story here on Coinhead.

 

ASX 200 to open lower on Monday

The ASX 200 index looks set to open lower this morning, with futures markets (February contracts) pointing down by 0.70% at 8:30am AEDT.

On Friday, the local index lost ground in afternoon trading and closed 2.27% down. For the week, the index was down almost 3%, one of its worst weekly drops in a year.

On the IPO front, set to list today is Virdis Mining and Minerals (ASX:VNM), an explorer that raised $5.5m at 20c.

It will be a short week of trading in Australia, as the ASX will pause on Wednesday for Australia Day. The main economic headline this week will be Tuesday’s CPI data.

In large caps news this morning, Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) has acquired battery systems company Williams Advanced Engineering for £164 million ($309.7 million).

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Visioneering Tech (ASX:VTI)
VTI has enrolled the first patient in its clinical trial to test its NaturalVue Multifocal Contact Lenses in children with myopia. The study will enrol a total of 144 healthy nearsighted children (myopes) of 7 to 13 years of age, whose current prescription is between -0.75D and -5.00D.

Harvest Tech (ASX:HTG)
Harvest and Inmarsat have signed a new agreement for Harvest to join Inmarsat’s new maritime initiative as a Certified Application Provider. Inmarsat is the world-leader in communications at sea with over 45,000 connected vessels across the globe. Signing this deal is a major step towards securing Harvest’s target of 1,000 maritime licenses by end of 2022.

Alvo Minerals (ASX:ALV)
Alvo has received interpreted results from the Fixed Loop Electromagnetic (FLEM) survey at the Palma Project in central Brazil. The results have highlighted a continuous high-tenor conductive trend both along-strike and down-dip of the known mineralisation, significantly expanding the prospectivity at C1 and the wider Palma Project.

Latin Resources (ASX:LRS)
Drilling permits have been approved for its Salinas Lithium Project, Brazil, with diamond drilling scheduled to commence in early February. Priority drill targets have been identified where sampling returned high‐grade results, including 2.71% Li2O and 1.45% Li2O from spodumene bearing pegmatites.

Midway Ltd (ASX:MWY)
The woodfibre processor and exporter announced a new CEO and managing director, Tony McKenna. Midway says McKenna has extensive international experience in delivering growth strategies and major investment projects that will directly assist the company with its future growth plans.