Wall Street retreats slightly

All three US stockmarket benchmarks were slightly lower on Monday – the Dow Jones was down by 0.04%, the S&P500 by 0.01%, and tech heavy Nasdaq by 0.04%.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to sell more of his stocks after tweets with Democratic senator Bernie Sanders, who called on billionaires to pay more taxes. Musk had already sold about US$6.9b of his Tesla stocks last week.

 

Morgan Stanley has released its 2022 strategy outlook report, and told investors to stay away from US equities and bonds.

The investment bank predicted the S&P 500 will fall by 6% at the end of 2022, saying that current equity levels are too high and inflation will play a big part in valuations of assets next year.

To cryptos, where Bitcoin is trading lower US$63,800 at 8am AEDT, down from US$64,000 yesterday.

An Aussie-founded play-to-earn gaming platform says it is enjoying “explosive player growth” since its launch 12 weeks ago.

Crypto Gaming United says over 100,000 community members have signed up to its Discord channel, making it by one measure the most popular play-to-earn gaming guild.

Read the rest of that story 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 0.48% at 8:30am AEDT.

Yesterday, the local index posted steady gains to start the week, rising by 0.36%. Investors preferences leaned towards tech/consumer stocks and gold (unusual bedfellows), at the expense of the big banks and iron ore majors.

Later today,RBA Governor Dr Philip Lowe is set to give a speech titled “Recent trends in inflation”, along with the release of the RBA board minutes of the November 2nd meeting.

The weekly consumer confidence survey will also be released today, and investors’ focus is also on the wages data due out tomorrow.

On the IPO front, listing at 12.30pm today is Evolution Energy Minerals (ASX:EV1), Marvel Gold’s graphite spin out.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Singular Health (ASX:SHG)
SHG has ventured out of medical markets by forming GeoVR Pty Ltd,  a 50/50 venture with TerraCentric with the objective of commercialising the  the GeoVR technology. GeoVR allows for mineral exploration and production data to be visualised in a fully interactive 3D environment. 

Imugene (ASX:IMU)
IMU announced a new clinical trial agreement with Merck KGaA and Pfizer Inc to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Imugene’s HER-Vaxx. Under the deal, Imugene will be the sponsor of the study, while Merck KGaA and Pfizer will provide avelumab, the monoclonal antibody medication to be tested with HER-Vaxx.

SECOS Group (ASX:SES)
Officeworks has selected SECOS as supplier of certified compostable courier bags, to be made available via Officeworks online digital store. It will be launched under MyEcoBag brand, which follows on the recent success in supplying Veterans Canteen Services with MyEcoPet.

SRG Global (ASX:SRG)
The company has secured seven term contracts with Tier 1 clients across diverse sectors and diverse geographies worth $110m. The sectors include nickel, cobalt, iron ore, alumina, oil & gas, energy and dairy.

White Rock Minerals (ASX:WRM)
WRM has secured OTC trading of its shares in the US, after getting the required approval. The company’s shares can now be traded on the OTCQX, with major brokers covering the platform.