Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Wednesday

ASX is expected to follow Wall Street into the red today
Crude oil prices are back above US$100
US inflation at the fastest rate in over 40 years

Wall Street falls on higher inflation, oil prices

Aussie shares are set to open lower this morning, with the ASX 200 April futures pointing down by 0.27% at 8am AEDT.

Overnight, US and European stocks fell broadly across the board as oil prices jumped by 7%.

At the close, all three major US indexes – the S&P 500, the Dow and Nasdaq – were down by around 0.30% each.

Investors were spooked as Brent crude surged past US$100 to trade at US$105, as optimism for demand increased following a partial easing of lockdowns in China.

Oil prices have contributed to the fastest rise in the cost of living in the US since 1981. Overnight, the Labor Department reported the headline US CPI index had jumped 8.5% compared to a year ago (or 1.2% in the month of March).

https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1512244176842334227?s=20&t=q2JhmktxQv7xD-L6S5j6SQ

But the rise in CPI for March was in line with what the market expected, leading to a sharp fall in Treasury yields. After surging in the last few days, the benchmark US 10-year yield eased by 6bp to 2.72%.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is still below US$40k, and at 8.30am AEDT, it was trading at US$39,760.

A Sydney-based angel investor has cautioned against investing in governance tokens, the crypto coins that give tokenholders the right to vote on how a protocol is managed.

Read the rest of that story here on Coinhead.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Southern Cross (ASX:SXE)
SXE announced that it has received various contract awards totalling around $20m. It includes projects in data centres and the resources sector. The company is now entering the final quarter of FY22 with an order book of around $600m.

Midway (ASX:MWY)
The forestry management and woodfibre company confirmed that its FY22 export volumes will be approximately 2 million to 2.2 million tonnes. Midway says sales demand has picked up in the second half, but COVID-19 has disrupted the availability of harvest and haul crews to deliver product for shipment.

COG Financial (ASX:COG)
Equipment finance specialist, COG Financial, said its net profit after tax and ammortisation (NPATA) for the quarter was $5.8m, a 49% increase on the pcp. It was another record quarter for COG as it continued to perform strongly despite the seasonally softest period.

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R)
Aircore drilling results from its 80%-owned Gidji JV Project in WA included significant results from three holes that intersected 4m @ 1.54g/t Au.

Greenstone Resources (ASX:GSR)
Multiple high-grade intercepts returned as part of current drill program at Burbanks North include: 10.2 metres @ 5.45g/t Au from 332.8 metres, and 2.0 metres @ 12.85g/t Au from 209.0 metres.