Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Tuesday

Wall Street extends rebound

US stocks mainly rose on Monday, in a continuation of the upward momentum at the end of last week.

The S&P 500 index rose by 0.34% while the Nasdaq was up 0.84%, but the Dow Jones fell slightly (by 0.1%).

Data out of China during Asian trade yesterday showed the Chinese economy grew by 4.9% in the last quarter, falling short of the 5.1% forecast of analysts polled by Reuters.

US industrial production also fell 1.3% in September, much more than expected due to the lingering effects of Hurricane Ida.

In corporate news, Apple shares were up 1.2% after the company launched its new third-generation Airpods and revamped MacBook Pro laptops.

The benchmark 10-year treasury yield was up two basis points to 1.59%, while the 2-year yield is at a 19-month high at 0.42% as investors price in an inflation rise.

In other markets, oil prices pared back recent gains, with the benchmark Brent crude falling modestly by 0.6% to US$84.33.

The copper price soared to a new all time high as stockpiles hit a 47-year low – trading at US$11,300/t.

Eurozone shares -0.8%
US shares +0.3%, Nasdaq +0.8%
US 10 yr yld +3bp to 1.6%
Oil +0.2% to $82.4
Gold -0.1% to $1764.8
Iron ore -1% to $124.2
ASX futures -0.3%$A 0.7411 with $US index flat

— Shane Oliver (@ShaneOliverAMP) October 18, 2021

To cryptos, where Bitcoin is holding steady above US$60k at US$61,500, inching closer to its all time in April of US$64,869.

While England’s deputy central bank governor Jon Cunliffe warned of “a massive collapse in crypto-asset prices”, the CEO of hedge fund Pantera Capital reckons Bitcoin’s notorious 80 per cent crashes are be behind us.

Read all about that here on Stockhead.

ASX 200 to open lower on Tuesday

The ASX 200 looks set to open lower this morning, with futures markets (December contracts) pointing down by 0.27% at 8:30am AEDT.

Yesterday, the Aussie benchmark clocked higher by 0.26%, with tech being one of only a few sectors in the red, falling by 1.24%.

Today’s economics calendar looks stacked with a handful of releases due.

The RBA minutes from the October 5 meeting will be released. At that meeting, the central bank warned about the bubble in the housing market which led to APRA ordering the big banks to increase the home loan “serviceability buffer” from 2.5% to 3%.

ANZ and Roy Morgan will jointly release their weekly consumer confidence index.

Commonwealth Bank will also release its Household Spending Intentions report for September, alongside the weekly credit and debit card spending data

Meanwhile in large caps news this morning, supply chain specialist Brambles (ASX:BXB) reported an 11% increase in its Q1 sales, but has warned of ongoing supply chain and labour shortages issues ahead.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Althea Group (ASX:AGH)
The cannabis company has recorded its best quarter ever with $4.5 million in receipts from customers. It was an an increase of 116% from the previous corresponding period, and 57% on the prior quarter.

Singular Health (ASX:SGH)
The medical imaging tech company has been awarded funding from the CSIRO Kick-Start Program to undertake a research project with the national science agency. The program will focus on the development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tool to automatically design replacement cranial implants.

Albion Resources (ASX:ALB)
Albion has received heritage clearance for its maiden drilling program at Pillara East, part of the its 100% owned Lennard Shelf Zinc- Lead Project in WA. Pillara East includes numerous anomalous rock chips that were sampled by BHP and Western Metals back in May.

Okapi Resources (ASX:OKR)
The company has reported its maiden JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate for its Tallahassee Uranium Project located in Colorado, estimated at 25.4Mt @ 490ppm U3O8 for 27.6 million pounds of U3O8 using a 250ppm (parts per million) cut-off grade.

Beacon Minerals (ASX:BCN)
Initial open pit Mineral Resource Estimate for Beacon’s recently acquired MacPhersons Project contains: 4.8M tonnes @ 1.14g/t Au for 176k ounces, with MacPhersons now extending the Jaurdi mine life to approximately 6 years.

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