Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Thursday

Wall Street calm as Nasdaq inched to record high again

Calm has returned and the US markets had a relatively quiet day, with the three major benchmarks finishing in mixed territories.

The Dow Jones fell by 0.21%, S&P 500 was down by 0.11%, while tech heavy Nasdaq inched higher by 0.13%, closing at yet another record.

It was reported that 75-year old John McAfee, founder of the McAfee virus software, had committed suicide in a Barcelona prison after Spanish authorities approved his extradition to the US on tax evasion charges.

This year’s Amazon Prime Day online shopping event reportedly broke previous records. The bonanza raked in more than US$11 billion in sales, topping last year’s sales of US$10.4 billion.

Amazon’s share price fell slightly by 0.05% overnight.

In other markets, Bitcoin rebounded to US$33,400 level at 8am AEST, from the US$32,600 level on Wednesday.

Digital tokens are broadly speaking on the slide in the last few weeks, after China’s crackdown and the increasing environmental concerns of mining coins.

ASX’s rollercoaster week

The ASX 200 fell by 0.60 per cent on Wednesday, following Tuesday’s 1.4% gain and Monday’s 1.8% fall, for an overall drop of 1% for the week.

On Wednesday, only tech and resources closed up with gains of 1.1% and 0.91% respectively while energy was the worst performer with a 1.23% retreat.

There will be a new listing on the ASX today, as Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) makes its debut.

The company is a result of a recent demerger from Woolworths (ASX:WOW), and has a portfolio of businesses from retail drinks, accomodation, to gaming. It will list today at around $10.80 for a market cap of $13 billion.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Kleos Space (ASX:KSS)
The company said the Kleos Polar Vigilance Mission will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station onboard the Spaceflight SXRS-5/SpaceX Transporter-2 Mission on 25 June. The four satellites will be deployed into a 525km Sun Synchronous orbit, and will cover areas north and south of the Kleos Scouting Mission satellites, which successfully launched last November.

Empired (ASX:EPD)
The IT services company has secured a two-year digital services contract with the Department of Innovation and Skills (DIS) in South Australia, worth a total of $9 million. Under the terms, Empired will provide a range of services spanning program management, digital and data services, and replacing and modernising the department’s core systems.

Singular Health (ASX:SHG)
The medical imaging company has launched an innovative blockchain-based Medical File Transfer Protocol (MFTP), which will provide a secure and auditable method for the transfer of medical images between practitioners and patients. The company says this will transform healthcare, as a recent UK study showed that over 80% of patients want to receive their images directly, but the process to do so is complex, and in 2D.

Adveritas (ASX:AV1)
The digital marketing company said that new TrafficGuard contracts signed in the June quarter were worth $350k for the company, increasing its annualised revenue by 132 per cent compared to the March quarter. TrafficGuard is an ad fraud prevention technology owned by Adveritas.

Latin Resources (ASX:LRS)
The company reported that an analysis of 57 rock chip samples collected along the historic Peep O’Day workings have been received, with several returning grades greater than 1.0 g/t Au, with a peak of 9.79 g/t Au.