Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Thursday

ASX 200 will open lower after a fall on Wall Street overnight
OPEC+ will meet to discuss higher output
The ASX gets a new CEO

Aussie shares are set to fall this morning after Wall Street finished lower following a volatile session overnight.

At 8am AEST, the ASX 200 June futures index is pointing down by 0.70%.

US stocks fell broadly by around 0.7%, as San Francisco Fed Reserve Bank president Mary Daly urged the Fed to raise rates aggressively until its 2% inflation target is reached.

“I would think we just move the rate until we find ourselves at least at neutral and then we look around and see what else needs to be done,” said Daly.

JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon meanwhile, told a room full of analysts that investors need to “brace yourselves”.

“You know, I said there’s storm clouds but I’m going to change it … it’s a hurricane.

“While conditions seem ‘fine’ at the moment, nobody knows if the hurricane is ‘a minor one or Superstorm Sandy’,” he said.

But there was some glimmer of hope as tech giant Salesforce rose 10% after raising its profit outlook. Retailer Victoria’s Secret also rose 9% after topping its quarterly estimates.

Oil prices climbed slightly overnight ahead of the OPEC+ meeting on Thursday.

OPEC members are expected to approve a July increase of 432,000 barrels a day, following the EU sanctions on Russian oil.

There are rumours however that OPEC may exempt Russia from future quotas.

“What did surprise markets was a Wall Street Journal article suggesting that OPEC might exempt Russia from the production quota agreement at tomorrow’s OPEC+ meeting,” said Oanda senior market analyst Jeff Halley.

“The internal politics of OPEC+ makes the Game of Thrones look like a teddy bears’ picnic,” he added.

Bitcoin meanwhile has plunged back by 7% in the last 24 hours. At 8.30am AEST, BTC is trading at US$29,630.

Back home, market operator ASX Ltd (ASX:ASX) has appointed its first ever female CEO, Helen Lofthouse.

Lofthouse is currently the ASX’s Group Executive Market, and has been with the firm since 2015.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Bubs Australia (ASX:BUB)
Bubs says the Biden Administration has announced the Fourth Operation Fly Formula Mission to transport first two deliveries of Bubs Infant Formula products to the US. First flights are scheduled to depart Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport on 9 and 11 June. Subsequent flights are also in the process of being finalised to distribute the first 1.25 million tins (or 27.5 million bottles).

92 Energy (ASX:92E)
92 Energy’s technical team is now on site at the company’s 100% owned Gemini Project, located in the high-grade Athabasca Basin uranium district in Canada, with drilling planned to commence on 10 June. The Gemini summer 2022 program will initially consist of 6,000m of drilling.

Amplia Therapeutics (ASX:ATX)
New data shows that Amplia’s lead asset AMP945 shows similar efficacy to a current standard of care, OFEV, in a recognised model of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Amplia says this finding will provide significant encouragement to clinical investigators and patients for its planned clinical trials of AMP945.

RLF AgTech (ASX:RLF)
Fertiliser company RLF says it has secured $1 million in a forward sales for FY23, signed with a key OEM customer, Hebei Veyong Bio-Chemical. Veyong has been operating in the field of agricultural pesticides for more than 60 years, and has an extensive product line which is used in more than 80 countries throughout the world.

Develop Global (ASX:DVP)
Assay results have been returned from the copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) sulphide mineralisation intersected in recent diamond drilling at the Evelyn Deposit. Results include: 18m @ 2.52% Cu, 7.22% Zn, 0.69% Pb, 60g/t Ag and 0.83 g/t Au from 41m.