Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Tuesday

ASX to open flat amid late sell off in US tech

Wall Street mainly finished lower on Monday as a late selloff drove tech stocks down.

In the last hour of trading, heavy selling volumes saw the Nasdaq falling by 0.58% as investors ditched big tech names.

Stocks like Meta (-5%), Alphabet (-3%) and Microsoft (-1.63%) were heavily sold in the final session. The benchmark S&P 500 closed 0.37% lower, while the Dow Jones finished flat.

US investors have their eyes on the CPI data this Thursday, a key metric that could determine the pace of the Fed rate hikes this year.

Over the Atlantic, ECB President Christine Lagarde said any adjustment to Europe’s monetary policy will be gradual.

“We will remain attentive to the incoming data and carefully assess the implications for the medium-term inflation outlook,” Lagarde said in European Parliament.

In commodities, the spot iron ore price gained 2.5% to $US128.42, while oil prices were down by 0.5%.

To cryptos where Bitcoin is up 4% to US$44,185 at 8.20am this morning.

Meanwhile, a popular Solana NFT marketplace says it will stop launching projects from anonymous teams after yet another rugpull over the weekend.

Magic Eden marketplace also said it would allocate funds to “derug” the Balloonsville NFT project after the team bailed on the hyped project on Sunday shortly after its mint, in which they made 5,000 SOL (US$590,000).

ASX 200 to open lower on Tuesday

The ASX 200 index looks set to open flat this morning, with futures markets (February contracts) pointing flat at 8:20am AEDT.

Yesterday, local shares fell 0.13% despite being buoyed by travel stocks which soared after PM Scott Morrison announced the reopening of Australia’s international borders on 21 February.

In large caps news this morning, Suncorp Group (ASX:SUN) has cut its interim dividend after group NPAT fell 20.8% to $388 million.

Suncorp CEO Steve Johnson said the business has been challenged by the La Niña climate pattern and Covid-19 challenges.

Set to make its ASX debut later today is WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1), a mining explorer that raised $6m at 20c.

On the economics front, the CBA will release its January report on Household Spending Intentions (HSI), NAB will announce its business survey for January, and Roy Morgan and ANZ are also set to issue their weekly reports on consumer sentiment.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Good Drinks (ASX:GDA)
The company’s first half sales were up 26% t0 10.6 million litres, sending revenues to jump 15% to $32.7m. GDA says its east coast (of Australia) sales were impacted by Covid, but those were offset by strong WA/QLD retail and draught sales.

Neuroscientific Biopharma (ASX:NSB)
Lead drug candidate EmtinB has successfully completed genotoxicity and plasma protein binding studies – two key studies in finalising its neurology safety program. NSB targets its first in-human Phase1 study of EmtinB in the first half of this year.

Caravel Minerals (ASX:CVV)
Recent aircore drilling has identified a significant new area of copper mineralisation adjacent to the Bindi East Deposit. Bottom of hole samples from seven holes returned results between 0.12 – 0.50% Cu, defining an approximately 1,000m long corridor trending north-northeast.

Shree Minerals (ASX:SHH)
Shree announced the addition of new exploration licence “Oak Hill” in the Southern Lachlan Fold Belt that is prospective for gold. The The Oak Hill tenement is located 20km northwest of the town of Albury in southern NSW, and covers an area of approximately 25 km sq.

Thomson Resources (ASX:TMZ)
Initial metallurgical test work for Texas District Silver returns an average 77.8% and 90.7% silver recovery from grind, and two stage leach of the Twin Hills and Mt Gunyan mineralisation.

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