Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Tuesday

Tech stocks sold, Saudi Arabia oil fields attacked

The rotation into cyclical and away from growth stocks continued overnight, with tech stocks on the NASDAQ being sold off.

The Dow Jones rose 1.21%, the S&P500 was down 0.37%, while the tech heavy NASDAQ sank 2.26%.

The so called FAANG stocks – America’s biggest tech stocks made up of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google – were sold down by around 4%.

This comes as the benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield inched higher towards the 1.60% level, sitting at 1.59%.

Meanwhile, oil prices were down slightly by 1%, even as Saudi Arabian oil facilities in Ras Tanura and Dhahran were targeted by missiles launched Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Brent crude price surged to as high as US$70 after the attack, before retreating to US$67.90

Bitcoin is trading at $US51,670 as at 8am AEDT.

Closer to home

The S&P/ASX200 index rose by 0.43% yesterday, and is set to open higher this morning.

Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) and super fund manager Aware Fund have finalised their due diligance to acquire 100% of ASX-listed Vocus Group (ASX:VOC). The bid is at $5.50 a share, valuing Vocus at $3.5 billion. The Vocus shares last traded on Monday at $5.

Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY) said that it will now advance into the engineering phase on its its James Bay Lithium Mine Project in Québec, Canada, following its preliminary economic assessment. The project is said to be strategically located close to emerging electric vehicle markets in North America and Europe, with an expected average annual production of 330kt/pa of spodumene concentrate with an ~18-year mine life.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Duratec (ASX:DUR)
The company announced it has executed a letter of intent to commence preliminary works on the specialist façade enhancement and re-cladding of a significant Perth CBD high-rise building. The value of the contract is $63 million. Duratec specialises in extending the life of steel and concrete structures by using proprietary techniques.

Nexion (ASX:NNG)
Nexion has today announced its expansion into New Zealand, signing an agreement to deploy its first international OneCloud node in Auckland. The agreement was reached with Aryaka Netowrks to build an SD-WAN network node, and marks the first milestone in Nexion’s plan to build a global Hybrid-Cloud network. The new Auckland node comes on the back of the successful deployment of Aryaka’s Perth PoP.

Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC)
Announced upgraded Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the company’s flagship Beharra high grade silica sand project. The new MRE resulted in an additional 28Mt for a total Indicated Mineral Resource of 139Mt at a SiO2 grade at 98.6%, which was the same grade as that reported in the maiden MRE in July last year.

BMG Resouces (ASX:BMG)
The company says it has received all assay results from the drill program completed last December at the company’s 100%-owned Abercromby Gold Project. Selected results include:

[email protected]/t Au from 192m, including [email protected]/t Au from 192m(20ABRC0004) and
[email protected] g/t Au from 42m including 2m @ 10.83 g/t Au from 42m (20ABRC0010)

DDH1 Limited (ASX:DDH)
Drilling company DDH1 is set for its IPO debut on the ASX today. The company has raised $150 million, issuing 136.4 million new shares at $1.10 a share. The shares will start trading at 1pm AEDT, and will value the company at $376.5 million.