Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Wednesday

ASX is set to open higher after a Wall Street rally
US Fed chairman Jerome Powell says the Fed will keep pushing until inflation declines
Crucial Aussie unemployment data due out tomorrow

Aussie shares are set to open higher this morning after a strong broad-brushed rally in the US.

At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 June futures is pointing up by 0.98%.

Overnight, Wall Street surged as risk sentiment returned to markets, pushing all three major US stock market indexes higher.

The benchmark S&P 500 rose by 2.02%, the Dow by 1.34%, and tech heavy Nasdaq by 2.76%.

This was despite comments by US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who said the Fed would keep “pushing” until inflation declines.

“What we need to see is inflation coming down in a clear and convincing way, and we’re going to keep pushing until we see that,” Powell told a Wall Street Journal event.

“If we don’t see that, we will have to consider moving more aggressively” to tighten financial conditions.

“We will go until we feel we are at a place where we can say ‘yes, financial conditions are at an appropriate place, we see inflation coming down’.”

Meanwhile, oil prices fell 2% overnight erasing the previous day’s gains. It came as President Biden put pressure on Venezuela to lift crude output by promising to ease some bans previously put in place.

The Aussie dollar also reclaimed US70c, in a sign that investors are expecting demand for commodities to pick up. Bitcoin is holding steady at US$30,300 at 8.30am AEDT.

Later today, Australia’s Q1 wage price index will be released, ahead of the crucial unemployment data tomorrow.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

SRG Global (ASX:SRG)
The engineering company has secured a new $95 million civil maintenance term contract with Alcoa. The scope of services includes civil infrastructure maintenance services at Alcoa’s alumina refinery in Kwinana, WA.

Recharge Metals (ASX:REC)
Three diamond drillholes have now been completed for a total of 1,150m, including 887m of diamond core at the Brandy Hill South Project in WA. The third and latest diamond hole, BHD026, intersected similar lithologies and styles of sulphide mineralisation between 80.9m to 357.5m down hole.

Zenith Minerals (ASX:ZNC)
Zenith advised that drilling has recommenced at the Waratah Well lithium project in WA. The project is part of the Zenith lithium joint venture with EV Metals Group. Initial drilling program has confirmed the presence of widespread lithium bearing pegmatite dykes over a 4km zone.

Biome (ASX:BIO)
Nutrition company Biome released a trading update, where it reported a quarter-to-date Q4 sales of $840k. For the full year FY22, Biome said its sales increased by 54% on pcp due to increasing demand  for its Activated Probiotics products.

Imugene (ASX:IMU)
Imugene and cancer hospital City of Hope announced that the first patient was dosed in a Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating the safety of cancer-killing virus CF33-hNIS VAXINIA, when used in people with advanced solid tumour. This US component of the Phase 1 trial is being conducted under the US FDA investigational new drug (IND) process, following FDA IND clearance last December.