Wall Street falls as oil price rallies
US stocks fell for the second consecutive day, as oil prices rallied overnight.
All three US stock market benchmarks were down – the Dow Jones by 0.72%, the S&P 500 by 0.69% ,and tech heavy Nasdaq by 0.64%.
Oil prices jumped to the highest levels since 2018, with Brent crude climbing 1.5% further and trading at US$83.65/barrel.
The surge has been fuelled by energy shortages as the world comes out of lockdowns, with crude oil now up by 60% this year.
In other markets, the spot iron price jumped by 9.5% on expectations that Chinese steelmakers might bump up their output.
The move in iron ore has lifted the AUD/USD rate, which is trading at US$0.7346 at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin keeps on surging toward the US$60k level, and is trading now at US$57,100 at 8:00am AEST this morning from the US$54,800 level on Monday.
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a jab at Bitcoin bulls and questioned the coin’s supposed 21 million cap.
“How do you know it ends at 21 million? You all read the algorithms? You guys all believe that?”
As it happens, Stockhead has compiled everything you need to know about cryptos. Where it’s been, where it’s at, and where it’s heading.
Read all about it here.
ASX 200 to open lower on Tuesday
The ASX 200 looks set to open slightly lower this morning, with futures markets (December contracts) pointing down by 0.37% at 8:30am AEST.
Yesterday, the Aussie benchmark retreated by 0.28% as angst over inflation and the withdrawal of stimulus continued to weigh on global markets.
Later today, the NAB Business Confidence index will be released.
And on the IPO front, three stocks are expected to make their debut on the ASX:
Minerals 260 (ASX:MI6), a mineral explorer that raised $15m at 50c.
Diablo Resources (ASX:DBO), a mineral explorer that raised $6.5m at 20c.
Resilience Mining Mongolia (ASX:RM1), a copper and gold explorer with projects in Mongolia. The company raised $6m at 20c.
5 ASX small caps to watch today
ikeGPS (ASX:IKE)
The company won a $1.6m contract with a communications customer to support a fibre infrastructure deployment in mid-west regions of the US. IKE’s platform allows communications companies, electric utilities, and their engineering service providers to increase speed and safety for the construction and maintenance of distribution assets.
Plenti Group (ASX:PLT)
The fintech company has delivered 140% year on year growth for Q2 FY22, bringing its quarterly loan originations to $256.4m. It also recorded monthly loan originations of $95.5 million in September, 159% above September 2020.
MOQ Limited (ASX:MOQ)
The I.T. company has appointed a new CEO, Peter Ward. Ward has previously held the position of Chief Solutions Officer at MOQ, where he has been responsible for the growth of the Digital Services businesses. Joe D’Addio will resign from his CEO position, and serve as Board member in the interim.
BPM Minerals (ASX:BPM)
The company said two lead-zinc-silver projects, Rhodes and Ivan Well, were granted in the Earaheedy Basin, an emerging base-metal precinct which remains largely untested. External aeromagnetic-photographic interpretations have been completed at both Rhodes and Ivan Well, delivering 21 and 13 Litho-Structural Pb- Zn-Ag exploration targets respectively.
Aurelia Metals (ASX:AMI)
The company reported that very strong copper mineralisation was intercepted in new underground drilling along strike of the Kairos lode including: 43.0 metres at 2.4% Cu & 0.1g/t Au.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While BPM Minerals and Plenti Group are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.