Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Wednesday

Wall Street rises again as iron ore rebounds

All three US stock market indexes rose last night to their highest levels again.

The Dow Jones rose by 0.09%, S&P500 by 0.15%, and tech heavy Nasdaq by 0.52% – all notching record highs.

Shares in hospitality, retail, and airlines rose again overnight, on the back of the Pfizer vaccine approval announced the previous day.

Even meme stocks like Gamestop and AMC rose by more than 20% each.

However investors are anxiously waiting the outcome of the world’s central banks virtual meeting held this week , with the first announcement expected on Friday.

Quantitative easing and the possible tapering of the Fed’s bond buying program is expected to be high on the agenda.

In other markets, the price of iron ore bounced back by 7% overnight to US$146.13 a tonne, after falling by almost 15% last Thursday.

Oil prices also rose again for the second day in a row, by 3%, after gaining 5% the previous day.

To cryptos, where Bitcoin has fallen to US$48,300 level at 8:00am AEST, from the US$49,700 level on Tuesday.

Analysts believe it needs to hold a level around US$48K or just above to remain in a decent position to regroup for further positive price momentum.

ASX 200 to open higher on Wednesday

The ASX 200 looks set to open higher his morning, with futures markets (September contracts) pointing up by 0.20% at 8:30am AEST.

Yesterday, it was another positive close for the Australian bourse with Energy being the standout sector. The ASX 200 closed 0.17% higher yesterday, with Energy gaining 2.8% on the back of the oil price rebound.

In large caps news this morning, Afterpay (ASX:APT) reported a 91% increase in FY21 sales to $91.1bn. However its underlying statutory loss was $159.4m, compared to a $22.9m loss in FY20.

In the IPO market, clinical stage radiopharmaceutical company Clarity Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CU6) is set to list at 11am today. The company is developing next generation theranostic (therapy and imaging) products, based on its platform SAR Technology.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Veem (ASX:VEE)
In a record year, the marine propulsion tech company reported a 34% increase in full year revenue to $59.5m from FY20. Net profit after tax was $4.9 million, a 97% increase on FY20.

Douugh Ltd (ASX:DOU)
The fintech company has launched a robo-advisory service in the US which provides diversified portfolios managed by experts. This will be a commission-free investment advice app, to be monetised via a monthly membership fee.

Whispir (ASX:WSP)
The cloud-based SaaS company reported that its full year FY21 revenue was $47.7m, which was a 22.1% increase from FY20. WSP reported a bottom line EBITDA loss of $4.7m, an improvement on the $5.6m loss in FY20.

SILK Laser (ASX:SLA)
The aesthetics clinic specialist reported a full year revenue of $58.9 million, which was 82% higher on prior year. EBITDA came in at $17.3 million, 8% above upgraded prospectus guidance of $15-16 million.

Probiotec (ASX:PBP)
The pharmaceutical manufacturer reported a full year underlying net profit after tax of $9.1m, which was 17% higher on FY20. The company says it will not be providing guidance for FY22, however said that its pipelines are expected to to grow in the coming years.