Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Tuesday

ASX to follow Wall Street’s gain this morning
Elon Musk bought a big stake in Twitter
RBA interest rates decision ahead

ASX to rise, Musk takes stake in Twitter

Local shares are set to extend their gains, with the ASX 200 April futures pointing up by 0.50% at 8am AEDT.

On Wall Street, all major stock markets rose – the S&P 500 by 0.81%, and the Dow Jones by 0.30%.

Nasdaq rallied by almost 2% after Elon Musk took a 9.2% passive stake in Twitter, becoming the biggest shareholder. Twitter stock closed 27% higher.

On March 25, Musk tweeted that he was giving “serious thought” to creating a new social media platform. Then he created a poll on Twitter asking if people believed Twitter adhered to free speech.

Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.

Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022

Metal miners are expected to do well today as the spot iron ore price surged to US$160 a tonne, an 8-month high.

The ferrous metal has been climbing on the back of sentiment that China would prop up its economy by introducing new stimulus this year.

In other markets, Bitcoin is trading steady at $46,426 at 8am AEDT, and the Aussie dollar is trading at US75.45c.

Looking ahead, the RBA will hand down its interest rates decision later today. Economists predict there won’t be any policy shifts announced today.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Quickstep (ASX:QHL)
The aero tech company was awarded a maintenance contract of the V2500 Engine Nacelle by Jetstar Airways, which is part of the Qantas Group (ASX: QAN). The contract value for Quickstep’s work scope is anticipated to be in the range of $30-35 million revenue over three years.

Truscreen Group (ASX:TRU)
The med device company announced the release of a China-based cervical cancer screening trial, which validated the superiority of its screening method. The results will support Truscreen’s business expansion in China.

Musgrave Minerals (ASX:MGV)
RC drilling at the Big Sky Prospect continues to deliver strong near-surface high-grade gold results. New intercepts include: 6m @ 19.2g/t Au from 87m, and 3m @ 20.3g/t Au from 26m.

JCurve Solutions (ASX:JCS)
The business transformation tech company delivered a record $3.4m of sales for Q3 FY22, representing a 32% increase from the pcp. Year to date sales growth was 43%, with $10.9m of sales recorded in the first nine months of FY22.

Grand Gulfe Energy (ASX:GGE)
GGE says application for Permit to Drill has been approved in Utah. Jesse#1 is the first pure-play helium well to be drilled in the Red Helium project area, which contains a gross P50 helium Prospective Resource of 10.9 billion cubic feet.