Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Thursday

Wall Street slips for third consecutive day

Inflation worries have persisted in the market, with all major indices in the US falling again overnight, bringing the string of losses to three consecutive days.

The Dow Jones was down 0.48%, S&P 500 fell 0.29%, and tech heavy NASDAQ dropped slightly by 0.03%.

The fall in Wall Street is part of a global equities pullback overnight, with all major European stock markets also falling.

Elsewhere in commodities, iron ore fell by 3.7% to $US216.16 a tonne, and Brent crude was down by 3.2% to $US66.52 a barrel.

Cryptos plunge

The crypto market has undergone a mini plunge overnight. Bitcoin dropped 8 per cent, and is now trading below US$40k at US$39,500 at 8am AEDT.

The swing in BTC was especially extreme, with the coin plunging by 30 per cent at one point before regaining in the afternoon on dip buying.

Other cryptos – Ethereum, Dogecoin – also fell by as much as 20 per cent.

Two negative news points in the past week may have caused the fall: Elon Musk saying that BTC could not be used to purchase Tesla cars, and China cracking down on financial institutions providing crypto transactions services.

Closer to home

The ASX 200 lost 1.90 per cent on Wednesday, with every single sector in the red and resources being the worst performer after falling over 3 per cent.

In big cap news this morning, Auckland Airport (ASX:AIA) CEO, Adrian Littlewood, has decided to step down after nine years in the job to take an extended career break.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Peppermint (ASX:PIL)
The fintech company announced that it has signed a payments facilitator agreement with operator of GCash – G-Exchange Inc. This means that any Filipino GCash mobile wallet holder will now be able to pay for goods and services from the Bizmoto platform using their mobile GCash wallet. The agreement is for an initial one-year term.

Australian Agricultural (ASX:AAC)
The beef company reported a statutory net profit for the full year of $45.5m, which was up 14 per cent from the previous corresponding year. The company was able to achieve this profit growth even as total sales dropped by 68 per cent, due to cost-cutting measures which reduced its expenses by $76m.

Pure Hydrogen (ASX:PH2)
The clean energy company announced that it has executed a MOU with Australian hydrogen company H2H Energy, which has agreed to supply and maintain refuelling outlets on a number of Pure Hydrogen’s proposed sites. This marks another step for Pure Hydrogen in its effort to roll out a hydrogen network across Australia.

PainChek (ASX:PCK)
The medtech company said that it has received regulatory clearances including the CE Mark and UK MHRA, that will allow for sales and marketing of its PainChek Infant product in Australia, Europe, UK, Canada, Singapore and New Zealand.

Adslot (ASX:ADS)
The internet marketing company announced it has executed an agreement with US-based Media Monks, and its sister agency Firewood Marketing. The agreement will enable Media Monks and Firewood to trade with Adslot’s growing catalogue of premium US and global publishers via the Adslot Media marketplace.