Overseas Markets Highlights

US markets bounced back on Friday after US payroll gained more than expected.

Dow Jones rose 1.85%, S&P500 down 1.95%, while tech heavy NASDAQ sank 1.55%.

The US Senate has passed the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill after a marathon deliberation over the weekend.

Oil prices continued to rise another 5%, hitting highest levels for more than a year after OPEC decided to extend the supply cuts by at least another month.

Benchmark 10-year treasury yield shot up to 1.6% following the job reports, before retreating to 1.57%.

Bitcoin falls below $US 50,000 again

Bitcoin is trading at $US49,922 as at 8am AEDT.

Talks about the possibility of Bitcoin ETF trading in Australia are gaining ground, as Canada has approved the launching of the world’s first Bitcoin ETF. Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has also officially filed an application to list Bitcoin ETF.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

The ASX fell by 0.74% on Friday, but is set to open higher today following rises in the US.

Douugh (ASX:DOU)
Fintech Douugh announced an affiliate marketing partnership with Japanese giant Rakuten. The partnership will give Douugh a cost-effective and low risk way to increase mobile App downloads and accelerate customer acquisition.

GWR Group (ASX:GWR)
Mining company GWR confirms the successful completion and delivery of the first iron ore shipment in accordance with GWR’s offtake agreement with Hong Kong Trader, Pacific Minerals. The company advised that its second vessel has been secured with the Cargo Ship “MV Marinicki”, which is expected to be loaded with premium high-grade lump and fines and expected to depart in late March 2021.

K2FLY (ASX:K2F)
Asset management consultant K2FLY announced that Coeur Mining Inc (Coeur) has signed a 5-year Resource Inventory Management SaaS contract to roll out to 5 sites. Coeur is a precious metals mining company listed on the NYSE. It operates five mines in North America.

Boss Energy (ASX:BOE)
Minerals explorer Boss Energy advised that it has passed a major milestone on the path to completion of the Enhanced Feasibility Study (EFS) on its Honeymoon Uranium Project, with the process engineering studies completed. 
The work completed continues to indicate that the Ion Exchange (IX) columns, which will replace the existing Pulsed columns, have the potential to increase production throughput and nameplate capacity at Honeymoon to 2.45 million pounds per annum.

Talga Group (ASX:TLG)
Battery anode and graphene company Talga provided an update on the commercial scale trials of its Talcoat graphene additive for marine coatings. The Talcoat coating was first applied to a 33,000t container ship late in 2019, in the world’s largest single application of graphene. The commercial scale trial was later extended to include a second similar sized container ship. On the first ship, Robin 1 (previously Algarrobo), visual inspection over 15 months service indicates the Talcoat product is matching or exceeding commercial standard.

Elixir (ASX:EXR)
The Mongolian-based energy company announced that its 2021 field program has just commenced with the spudding of the Yangir-2 well. The Government of Mongolia has recently lifted various COVID-19 related travel and other restrictions. A vaccine program has commenced in the country. Yangir-2 will be a fully tested core-hole, drilled immediately adjacent to last year’s Yangir 1S strat- hole. Yangir 1S encountered 27 metres of visibly bubbling coal seams. It was terminated at 347 metres in December 2020 for various operational reasons.

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