Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Monday

The ASX is poised to open Monday 0.70% higher
Wall Street had its best month in July since November 2020
Ahead this week, the RBA’s meeting on Tuesday

Local shares are set to open higher today. At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 August futures is pointing up by 0.70%.

Wall Street had its best month since November 2020, with the S&P 500 closing out July 8% higher after another 1.4% rise on Friday.

Tech heavy Nasdaq also gained 2% on Friday, taking its July gain to 11.35%.

Amazon jumped 10% after posting US$121 billion in Q2 revenue, beating analysts expectations by more than US$2 billion. For the quarter, it made a loss of US$2 billion.

Apple rose 3% after posting a revenue record of US$83 billion for the June quarter, up 2% year over year. It topped analysts’ expectations of $82.81 billion.

“Stocks rallied after robust mega-cap tech earnings, hopium that the Fed will pivot soon, and economic data that suggests the consumer is doing just fine,” said Oanda analyst, Edward Moya.

Oil prices also rallied after both Exxon and Chevron were optimistic about the crude demand outlook and on expectations that OPEC+ would not raise production in September. At time of writing, the benchmark Brent crude is trading at US$103.35 a barrel.

“The oil market will remain tight going forward as OPEC+ underproduction levels stood at 320%,” said Moya.

In cryptos, Bitcoin is trading at US$23,335 at 8am AEST.

Ahead in Australia today, Commsec says the CoreLogic home price index will be released, along with the ANZ job ads series, monthly inflation gauge and purchasing manager indexes (PMI).

The RBA will convene for it board meeting on Tuesday, and the market has already priced in a 50bp hike.

T. Rowe Price’s Thomas Poullaoue says the RBA rate hike expectations have been revised lower.

“We closed our underweight position in Australian bonds as RBA’s expected path of hiking is revised lower. We will remain overweight Australian equities, though cautious on risks,” Poullaoue said.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Aussie Broadband (ASX:ABB)
ABB says it expects full year FY22 to generate EBITDA at the top end of the existing guidance range of $38 million to $39 million. Comparing progress for FY22, total broadband services were up 46%. This includes residential broadband services up 28% to 464,979, and business broadband services up 68% to 59,488.

Proteomics (ASX:PIQ)
Proteomics says an early version of the company’s potential world-first blood test for endometriosis has successfully detected up to 78 per cent of people with the painful condition. Diagnostic biomarkers for endometriosis were identified following a clinical validation study between Proteomics, the Royal Women’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne. Results were presented at the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference (FSANZ 2022).

Qualitas (ASX:QAL)
Qualitas has secured commitments from a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) for a mandate to invest $700 million on behalf of a new fully discretionary investment vehicle. ADIA will also subscribe for options to acquire new ordinary shares equating to 9.99% of Qualitas’ shares on a fully diluted basis, conditional on ADIA committing further incremental investment mandates totalling $1 billion.

Genex Power (ASX:GNX)
Genex revealed that it had received a takeover proposal from Skip Essential Infrastructure Fund and Stonepeak to acquire Genex at 23 cents a share. The board said the bid price is not in the best interest of shareholders, and is asking the Consortium to submit a better offer. The GNX share price closed at 22c on Friday.

Metal Bank (ASX:MBK)
Initial drilling results from the Kingsley East Au target (KE22RC005) at the Livingstone Project returns high grade zone of 4m @ 4.09g/t from 12m, 2m @1.9g/t from 46m, and 2m @ 18.15g/t from 54m (including 1m at 35.4g/t).