Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Tuesday

Wall Street at record high on vaccine approval

All three US stock market indexes rose last night to record highs, as the US government gave full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The Dow Jones rose by 0.61%, S&P500 by 0.85%, and tech heavy Nasdaq by 1.55%.

Healthcare shares rose, with Pfizer rising by 2.5% and Moderna by 7.55%. Moderna is the best performer on the S&P 500 this year, rising by 270%.

Clinical trial stage biotech Trillium Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TRIL) rose by a whopping 185% overnight on a takeover offer from Pfizer.

In other markets, oil prices rebounded by 5.5% boosted by a weaker US dollar. Brent crude rose by US$3.50/barrel, and is trading at US$68.75/barrel.

Meanwhile, the crypto market is still buoyant and Bitcoin is trading near the US$50k mark after briefly climbing above that level on Monday.

BTC is trading at US$49,700 level at 8:00am AEST, from the US$48,900 level on Monday.

Dog-meme investors had been piling into Feisty Doge (NFD) over the past few days, causing a 721 per cent surge in price, according to a Crypto Briefing report.

ASX 200 to open higher on Tuesday

The ASX 200 looks set to open higher his morning, with futures markets (September contracts) pointing up 0.17% at 8:30am AEST.

Yesterday, the benchmark index closed 0.39% higher at 7,490 points, with the best sector being Tech, which rose 1.68%.

In large caps news this morning, Ansell (ASX:ANN) and HUB24 (ASX:HUB) both hiked dividend payouts after recording solid earnings for the full year.

ANN declared a final dividend of US43.6¢, its highest ever, while HUB is paying out 5.5¢ per share, which is 57% higher than FY20.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Toro Energy (ASX:TOE)
The company says geochemical assays have been returned, confirming the visible semi-massive nickel sulphides discovered at Dusty 2 in diamond drill hole. The results show semi-massive nickel sulphides were intersected at the base of the Dusty Komatiite/ultramafic unit with an average nickel grade of 1.59% Ni over 3.05m from 296.4m downhole.

Empired (ASX:EPD)
The cloud services company says that Cap Gemini Australia has received an approval from the Overseas Investment Office of New Zealand, permitting the proposed 100% acquisition of Empired. The total consideration is for $233m.

Adveritas (ASX:AV1)
The digital advertising company reported an annualised revenue of $1.4 million, up 41% ($420k) since 30 June. Adveritas says that growth is underpinned by its growing online betting segment.

Ecograf (ASX:EGR)
The graphite specialist says that sustainability is the focus of its new Australian Battery Anode Material facility. Its goals include a zero waste operating strategy with the aim of utilising 100% of feedstock through product innovation and development.

Aerometrex (ASX:AMX)
The aerial mapping company reported an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $4.8 million for the full year, up 189% from the previous year. Its total revenue is up by 4% to $20.9 million.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Advertitas is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.