Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Tuesday

ASX is set to open 0.25% higher today despite tech-led falls on Wall Street
Coinbase fell 11% after a Goldman Sachs downgrade
Brent crude up by 2% as G7 is expected to slap more sanctions on Russia

Tech stocks dragged Wall Street lower overnight as investors reassess their portfolios ahead of the June half-year period.

At the close of play, the S&P 500 was down 0.30% while tech heavy Nasdaq fell by 0.72%.

Coinbase weighed heavily as it fell 11% following a Goldman Sachs downgrade. The Coinbase stock price has now fallen by 83% since making its IPO debut on the Nasdaq in June last year.

Overall, it was a gloomy day for the crypto market with the benchmark Bitcoin falling by 3% over the last 24 hours to trade down at US$20,810 at 8am AEST.

Energy prices meanwhile rose as Russia pounded more Ukranian cities in response to the ongoing G7 summit, where leaders have committed to fresh sanctions on Russia’s oil and gold exports.

The benchmark Brent crude spiked by 2% to US$115.45 a barrel ahead of the OPEC+ meeting on Thursday (European time) to discuss August production quotas.

Russia is effectively in default right now as its US$100m government debt coupon deadline passed on Sunday without payment. But a Kremlin spokesperson insisted that “statements of a default were absolutely unjustified”.

Back home, the ASX 200 is set to open the day higher by 0.25% despite the fall on Wall Street.

And later today, the weekly consumer confidence index will be released.

Previous release of the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index showed that it had toppled to 86.4, a similar level seen during the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020.

The ABS will also release Australia’s census data later today.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

iCollege (ASX:ICT)
The vocational training provider has released its earnings guidance for FY22. iCollege says its revenues for FY22 will be in the range of $46 million-$47 million, up approximately 185% over the pcp. Closing cash balance at end of June will be approximately $30m, up from $4.5m at June 2021.

Harmoney Group (ASX:HMY)
The non-bank lender has secured an additional NZ$215 million warehouse facility to support its New Zealand growth. The facility is led by one of Australia’s Big Four banks.

DC Two (ASX:DC2)
DC2 says that after an evaluation by expert teams from global data centre authority The Uptime Institute, DC2’s Bibra Lake data centre has officially received Tier III Design Certification. This award marks one of the most significant milestones in the company’s history, and puts DC2 in an elite group of Australian companies to have achieved the prestigious certification.

A-Cap Energy (ASX:ACB)
A-Cap has fulfilled phase 2 of its second earn-in milestone for the Wilconi Nickel and Cobalt joint venture, after investing a total of $5 million in the project. This follows a phase 1 payment of $500,000 in cash to JV partner Wiluna Mining (ASX:WMC) in 2021.

Dynamic Group (ASX:DDB)
The company announced that it has formalised a contract for a gold project. The contract is estimated at between $8m to $10m in revenues, and will involve the delivery of drill and blast services at the Parkers Range Gold Project in WA.