Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Monday

ASX to slip despite Wall Street rally

The ASX is set to open lower today, despite a furious late rally on Friday that sent US stocks much higher.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones came back from morning losses to close 2.43% and 1.65% higher respectively, while the Apple-inspired Nasdaq rose 3.13%.

Apple surged 7% after reporting the highest revenue in its history, with earnings topping US$30bn for the first time led by strong sales in iPhones.

Trading platform Robinhood bounced up 10% off its record lows, after the company reported losses that were wider than expected the previous day.

In the US bond market, the futures market showed an 86% chance of a 25 basis point hike in March, while 14% predicted a 50 bps hike.

Meanwhile, the spot iron ore price is closing in on US$150 once again, and was up +6.6% to trade at $US147.90 a tonne. Oil prices were up around 1%.

Bitcoin is trading at US$38,034 at 8.00am AEDT today.

David Angliss, an analyst with Australia’s leading cryptocurrency investment firm, Apollo Capital, shares the fund’s weekly take on what’s happening in the fast-changing and volatile cryptocurrency 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 more than 1.5% at 8:30am AEDT.

On Friday, the local index gained 2.19% but lost 5% for the week.

In economics data, the January MI inflation gauge (last 2.8%) will be released today as inflation pressures are set to extend into 2022. All eyes are now on Tuesday’s RBA meeting following a shock 3.5% CPI print last week.

Set to make its ASX debut later today is Great Boulder’s (ASX:GBR) spin-off Cosmo Metals under the code CMO at 9.30 AWST/12.30PM AEDT.

Its flagship Yamarna project is a multi-commodity opportunity, 130km northeast of Laverton in the Eastern Goldfields district of Western Australia, comprising the Yamarna and Winchester exploration areas.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

CV Check (ASX:CV1)
The job candidate screening tech company recorded an 83% increase in Q2 revenue (vs pcp) to a record $6.5m. The result was underpinnned by revenue from its workforce compliance products of $1.4m, including SaaS revenue of $0.6m for the quarter.

MoneyMe (ASX:MME)
MoneyMe has grown its revenue by 108% to a record $25m for Q2 of FY22. The fintech reported record contracted revenue of $178m, and gross customer receivables of $590m for Q2 FY22, while continuing to see an increase in receivable credit quality.

Secos Group (ASX:SES)
Data showed by Woolworths showed Secos’ MyEcoBag as the fastest growing garbage bag by sales per store in 2020/2021. The MyEcoBag 36L bag sales grew by over 550% year-on-year (yoy), while the 8L bag sales grew by over 450% yoy.

Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU)
The company agreed to acquire a 15% interest in Orca Gold Inc from Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG). Orca is a gold developer listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, and the total purchase price is approximately C$17.5 million.

Cyclone Metals (ASX:CLE)
Gold specimen nuggets of up to 712 grams have been recovered from Cyclone’s Nickol River Gold Project. The company says 18 test pits, 20 metres by 10 metres in size, are to be carried out over the project area.

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