Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Wednesday

Wall Street rallies as sentiment lifts

US and European stock markets finally rose overnight after three days of losses.

The global rebound followed more developments on the omicron front, as British PM Boris Johnson ruled out any lockdown before Christmas.

President Biden also announced access to 500 million at-home tests, and the US FDA is expected to approve COVID-19 pills from Prizer and Merck as soon as this week.

All three US benchmark indexes closed higher – the S&P 500 by 1.78%, the Dow Jones by, 1.6% and tech heavy Nasdaq by 2.4%.

Chipmaker Micron Tech was the standout stock on Nasdaq, rising by 10.5%, after announcing an upbeat earnings forecast.

Oil prices also rallied overnight, with Brent crude jumping by more than 3%, and spot iron ore rising by 2.5%.

In cryptos, Bitcoin rallied by 3%, and at 8am AEDT, was trading at US$48,700.

BTC had been struggling to get back above its 200-day moving average – a level commonly regarded as a must-reclaim and must-hold for the overall bullish narrative to continue.

But could it mount a last minute rally before the end of the year?

Read the rest of that story here on Coinhead.

ASX 200 to open flat on Wednesday

Despite all the action on Wall Street, the ASX 200 looks set to open flat this morning, with futures markets (January contracts) pointing just slightly up by 0.01% at 8:30am AEDT.

Yesterday, the local index defied expectations to post a 0.86% gain, with Health up 3.9% and Energy up 1.62%.

Medical company Australian Clinical Labs (ASX:ACL) was a notable mover, up by 12% after upgrading its profit guidance amid surging demand for COVID-19 testing kits.

It will be a busy day today on the IPO front with five companies set to list:

Technology services company Attura (ASX:AJM) will list at 10AM AEDT while DMC Mining (ASX:DMM) and Greentech Metals (ASX:GRE) make their debut at 12:00PM AEDT.

Not too far behind is Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) demerger Falcon Metals (ASX:FAL) – who will be making its appearance at 2:00PM AEDT.

The demerger resulted in the transfer of Chalice’s Australian gold assets, which include the Pyramid Hill, Mt Jackson, Viking Projects.

And lastly, Infinity Mining (ASX:IMI) will start trading at 3:00PM AEDT.

In large cap news this morning, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) announced that it will acquire the Rincon lithium project from Rincon Mining for $825m.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Exopharm (ASX:EX1)
The company has been granted a US patent for its LEAP exosome purification technology. This patent positions Exopharm as a global leader in the commercial production of exosomes needed to enable exosome-based medicines.

Spacetalk (ASX:SPA)
Telenor, one of the Nordic region’s largest telco companies, will sell Spacetalk Adventurer online and in all of its Danish retail stores. Telenor has 1.7 million mobile subscribers, with 188 million customers worldwide.

Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL)
Blue Star, Vecta, and Prospero have agreed to jointly develop leases in Las Animas County in Colorado to develop BNL’s Serenity Prospect. Vecta and Prospero will contribute around 10k net acres, and BNL will contribute around 4.3k net acres.

Nyrada Inc (ASX:NYR)
Nyrada has appointed internationally recognised Charles River Lab to conduct its preclinical studies in the US ahead of a Phase 1 cholesterol lowering clinical trial in Australia next year.

Boab Metals (ASX:BML)
Strong demand for Boab’s Sorby Hills lead-silver concentrate from leading international groups has been confirmed. A competitive offtake tender process is on track for completion in Q1 of 2022.