Wall Street snaps four-day losing streak

In US stock markets, the S&P 500 rose by 0.23% and the Dow Jones climbed 0.76% – snapping their four-day losing streak.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq however, inched lower by 0.07%.

Energy stocks were the best performers overnight, as OPEC says it expects oil demand to exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2022.

Oil prices rose 1% on the news, along with US oil stocks such as Marathon Oil and Occidental Petroleum, which rose by 7% each.

An additional US$3.5 trillion stimulus package will be proposed by the Biden administration, and will be tabled to Congress this Wednesday (US time).

Meanwhile, the spot iron ore price tumbled again by around 5% to US$122.60, and is now down almost 50% since its all-time high of $US237 in May.

The steep fall came as China put the brakes on steel production ahead of the winter season and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

To cryptos, where Bitcoin has fallen to US$45,000 at 8:00am AEST this morning, from the US$45,300 level on Monday.

According to Bloomberg, the bitcoin network will have used 91TWh of energy by the end of this year, as much as Pakistan does.

The BTC price however, is still within the support range it needs to hold in order for a “bullish divergence” to play out, according to go-to crypto technical analyst Michaël van de Poppe.

 

ASX 200 to open lower on Tuesday

The ASX 200 looks set to open lower his morning, with futures markets (September contracts) pointing down by 0.38% at 8:30am AEST.

Yesterday, the Aussie benchmark rose by 0.25%, with energy and resources stocks leading the way.

Set to make its ASX debut at 11:30am AEST is Heavy Minerals (ASX:HVY), which has a heavy mineral sands project in Mozambique and a garnet asset near Geraldton in Australia.

The Westpac Consumer Sentiment for September will also be released today. The index dropped 4.4% to 104.1 points in August, the lowest point in a year, according to Westpac.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

MGC Pharma (ASX:MXC)
The Europe-based biotech company says a landmark UK import permit has been granted for CannEpil+, MGC Pharma’s drug to treat refractory epilepsy. This is the first time that an epilepsy treatment currently in a clinical trial process and containing THC has been approved by the authorities in the UK for import.

Telix Pharma (ASX:TLX)
The company announced the US FDA has accepted its Investigational New Drug Application to undertake a clinical study of the company’s investigational kidney cancer therapy, TLX250. The primary endpoint is to determine the efficacy of combining immunotherapy with TLX250, versus the current standard of care alone.

Doctor Care Anywhere (ASX:DOC)
The UK-based telehealth company announced it has expanded its digital healthcare service to self-pay patients in Ireland. This expands on the company’s offering in the country, where it already provides digital healthcare services to employees of one of the UK’s largest banking groups.

Metalcity (ASX:MCT)
The company announced a proposal to acquire Nex Metals (ASX:NME) in an off-market all scrip bid. Metalicity’s offer to Nex Metals shareholders is 4.81 Metalicity oshares for every 1 Nex Metals share , valuing NME at around $12.8m. NME owns the Kookynie and Yundamindra Gold projects.

Lotus Resources (ASX:LOT)
The company says it has received a renewal of the mining license for its Kayelekera Project in Malawi for another 15 years. The project is 15% owned by the Malawi government.

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While MGC Pharma, Lotus Resources and Metalcity are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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