Wall Street takes record highs even higher

All three US benchmarks rose overnight, as American consumer confidence for April rose the highest since the pandemic began and US house prices jumping the most in three decades.

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 rose by 0.03% each, while tech heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.19%.

Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have maintained their record highs.

The share price of Moderna rose by 5 per cent, after saying that its vaccine is effective against variants of the coronavirus, including Delta.

In another boost for the market, United Airlines is set to buy 270 Boeing and Airbus jets, as it plans a post-pandemic growth.

Bitcoin is on the rise and is currently trading at US$36,000 level at 8am AEST, from the US$34,500level on Tuesday.

As reported by Stockhead, Australia’s highest profile Bitcoin advocate Fred Schebesta sees the crypto replacing fiat in five years.

ASX 200 set to open higher

The ASX 200 is set to open higher this morning, with the index futures up by 0.86 per cent at 8:30am AEST this morning.

The index had again closed lower on Tuesday, though it was down by just 0.08% after recovering from the intraday lows it reached around lunch time.

Tech was the best performing sector with a 0.65% gain while the worst was utilities, which lost 1.26%.

In big cap news this morning, Telstra (ASX:TLS) has sold its 49 per cent stake in its mobile infrastructure business InfraCo Towers, and will return half of the sales proceeds to shareholders.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Renergen (ASX:RLT)
The company said that one of its current wells, C3PO, has struck gas, with an exceptional helium concentration of 1.7%, slightly above pre-drill expectations for this well. Well R2D2 is also showing promise, with preliminary helium readings of somewhere between 1% and 2.5%.

Avita Medical (ASX:AVH)
The regenerative medicine company has been added to the Russell 3000® Index effective June 28, 2021. The annual Russell indexes reconstitution process captures the 4,000 largest US stocks in May of every year, ranking them by total market capitalization. Avita currently has a market cap of $368 million.

AML 3D (ASX:AL3)
The 3D metal printing specialist has received a purchase contract to produce a 3D printed tooling component from Boeing. Under the deal, AML3D will supply to Boeing its Invar-361 ”mandrel tool artifact”, using the company’s proprietary wire additive manufacturing process.

Apiam Animal Health (ASX:AHX)
The company signed a deal to acquire Scenic Rim Veterinary Service and Boonah Veterinary Hospital, a leading equine and mixed animal veterinary business based in South-East Queensland for $16 million.

Lithium Australia (ASX:LIT)
The company said the European Patent Office intends to grant a patent for the first-generation LieNA lithium processing technology that will provide legal protection in nominated European countries for 20 years. The technology significantly improves metallurgical recovery of lithium from fine and low- grade spodumene.