• The ASX will open lower this morning despite a mini rally on Wall Street
  • Tesla’s Q2 result was a surprise
  • Gold tumbles below US$1,700

The ASX will open lower this morning, with the July futures index pointing down by 0.50% at 8am AEST.

Overnight, Wall Street pared early gains, with the broad-based S&P 500 finally closing just 0.59% higher and tech heavy Nasdaq 1.6% higher.

Tesla released its Q2 earnings late in the day, reporting a 32% decline in profit from the record levels in the first quarter, citing supply chain issues.

But the EV maker still impressed with a US$2.26 billion net profit for Q2, compared to US$3.32 billion in Q1.

Tesla also stuck with its earlier guidance of a 50% increase in annual vehicles sales growth in the next two years, but acknowledged it all will depend on supply chains and other issues. CEO Elon Musk had earlier labelled the current lithium price to be “insane”.

Tesla rose just 0.80%, but other tech giants gained with Netflix rising by 7% after predicting that it would return to customer growth in Q3, following the smaller than expected 1 million drop in subscribers in Q2 announced yesterday.

The spot gold price has now fallen below US$,1700, and was trading at US$1,696 an ounce.

“Gold’s inability to hold onto even modest rallies in prices, even as the US Dollar falls and US bonds trade sideways, is a major concern. Risk remains heavily skewed towards the downside,” said Oanda market analyst, Jeff Halley.

Iron ore futures slipped 1% overnight as Brazilian mining giant Vale lowered the top end of its production range guidance by 15 million tonnes to 320 million tonnes for 2022.

Ahead today, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will announce their interest rates decision.
 

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Incannex Healthcare (ASX:IHL)
Incannex has received Ethics Approval to commence Phase 1 clinical trial of multi-use anti-inflammatory cannabinoid drug IHL-675A. The trial will assess the pharmacokinetics, safety, and tolerability of IHL-675A. Patient recruitment is scheduled to commence in August 2022.

ikeGPS (ASX:IKE)
Revenue in Q1 FY23 was ~$6.8m (+162% vs pcp). Within this, recurring subscription and re-occurring transaction revenue was ~$5.7.m (+167% vs pcp). The signed contract backlog has continued to grow and it is estimated that $13-15m of this backlog will be delivered and recognised as revenue in the FY23 period.

Pantoro (ASX:PNR)
Initial step out drilling at the Lamboo Nickel-PGE Prospect has continued to return strong PGE, nickel and cobalt assays. In addition, significant coincident rhodium and iridium grades have been returned in the northern extensions of the Pt+Pd+Au zones drilled to date.

Tietto Minerals (ASX:TIE)
Tietto has hit up to 144.34g/t gold in AG Core infill drilling at the Abujar Gold Project in Côte D’Ivoire. Results include 1.72m @ 61.27g/t Au from 9m, and 22m @1.3 g/t Au from 34m.

K2Fly (ASX:K2F)
The management consulting company reported cash receipts from customers of $5.4m in Q4 FY22, up 200% from Q3. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) was $6m in Q4, 76% higher than the pcp.