Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Tuesday

ASX to rise as Nasdaq rallies sharply again

Australian shares are set to open higher ahead of the RBA meeting today, as the Nasdaq surged again overnight.

The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite gained another 3.41%, following a 3.13% rise the previous day.

The other two US benchmarks also rallied strongly overnight – the S&P 500 by 1.89% and the Dow Jones by 1.17%.

Tesla stock surged 11% after a report from Barron which endorsed Tesla stock as a better buy than either GM or Ford, and Credit Suisse also rating it a Buy. Tesla’s rival, Rivian, also rose by 15%.

Spotify was up 13% despite the company going into damage control mode after the controversy surrounding its content.

Artists like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren have all pulled their music from Spotify and called for a boycott over contents made from Joe Rogan who they believe to be spreading harmful misinformation on Covid.

Meanwhile in commodities, oil prices are at the highest in three decades as Brent crude reached US$91.21 a barrel on intensifying concerns over the Ukraine-Russia flashpoint.

The spot iron ore price loses 4% and currently trades at $US141.75 a tonne.

To cryptos, where Bitcoin is trading at US$38,373.60 at 8.30am AEDT.

January has been a horror month for cryptos but a handful of projects managed to rack up impressive gains.

Of the top 300 coins by market capitalisation, just 15 were in the green for January, as of Monday afternoon. Two hundred and fifty-eight had suffered losses, 16 were flat and 11 were newly launched.

Read the rest of that story here on Coinhead.

ASX 200 to open higher on Tuesday

The ASX 200 index looks set to open higher this morning, with futures markets (February contracts) pointing up by more than 0.60% at 8:30am AEDT.

Yesterday, the local index traded in a narrow band, finishing the day lower by 0.24%.

The biggest winning sector by far was Tech, which gained almost 4% following a 3% rally on Nasdaq the previous night.

The market’s eyes will turn to the Reserve Bank today, who will be convening for their first meeting of the year.

On the RBA’s agenda will be its monthly $4bn bond buying program and its interest rates policy, against a backdrop of higher inflation both in Australia and globally.

Economists expect no change to rates, but predict the bond buying program could be reduced or even terminated.

The key point in the meeting will be whether the RBA indicates it will shift its timeline for the next rate hike to 2022 — ahead of its previous forecasts.

Later today, the monthly CoreLogic home prices index will be released.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Radiopharm Theranostics (ASX:RAD)
Radiopharm has signed a deal with TerraPower, a leading nuclear innovation company. Both companies will work together to advance the next generation of radiopharmaceutical therapies for cancer treatment.

ikeGPS (ASX:IKE)
The company’s Q3 FY22 revenue rose approximately 100% on previous corresponding period (pcp) to $4.2m. This resulted in YTD revenue of $9.9m, which is 53% higher on pcp.

Volt Power (ASX:VPR)
The power generation company delivered a record FY21 annual revenue of $3.2 million, after a record Q4 cash from operating activities of ~$0.9m.

Felix Gold (ASX:FXG)
Reverse circulation (RC) drilling is scheduled to commence at the Treasure Creek Project, located 20 kilometres north of Fairbanks City, in March. The initial program at Treasure Creek is planned to encompass up to 180 drillholes for approximately 5,000 – 8,000 drilling metres. This is principally focussed on shallow RC drilling to test large-scale, high- grade (+100 ppb Au) soil geochemical anomalies at multiple prospects.

Matador Mining (ASX:MZZ)
Matador announced the appointment of a highly experienced and well respected Canadian based mining professional, Sam Pazuki, as the company’s CEO, effective 1st May. Ian Murray will continue to operate as Executive Chairman to facilitate a seamless management transition, and will move into a Non-Executive Chairman role in due course.