Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch on Wednesday

ASX to open 1% higher on Wednesday
Wall Street surges overnight, with Nasdaq rallying by 6%
Ahead, RBA governor Philip Lowe will speak

The ASX is poised to open more than 1% higher on Wednesday, after a strong rally on Wall Street overnight.

US stocks had one of their best days in of the year, with the S&P 500 lifting by more than 2% and the tech heavy Nasdaq surging by 6%.

Netflix jumped 6% after reporting that it lost 970k subscribers in the second quarter – less than what analysts feared.

Netflix stock is down almost 70% this year.

Shares in oilfield services provider Halliburton and toymaker Hasbro Inc also rose on the back of strong quarterly earnings.

Bitcoin jumped 8% in the last 24 hours to US$23,400, triggering a rally in other smaller crypto coins.

There was no specific reason for the move, other than recent news surrounding Ethereum’s pending transition to a proof-of-stake blockchain on Sep 19th. ETH has rallied by over 50% in the past week.

Crypto analyst firm Glassnode noted: “Against a backdrop of extremely challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil, bitcoin is reaching peak investor saturation by high conviction HODLers, and it is becoming quite plausible that a genuine bottom formation could be underway.”

In other markets, oil prices rose by 2% overnight while iron ore was down 2%.

Ahead today, RBA Governor Philip Lowe will make a speech at 9.10am AEST entitled Inflation, Productivity and the Future of Money.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Plenti Group (ASX:PLT)
Plenti’s loan portfolio increased to $1.44 billion at 30 Jun, 90% above pcp and 11% above prior quarter. The non-bank lender saw strong quarterly loan originations of $289 million, up 34% on pcp. Revenue was $30.5 million, along with continued positive cash NPAT in the quarter.

Bubs Australia (ASX:BUB)
Record Q4 gross revenue of $48.1m, up 278% pcp and up 174% QoQ, delivering the fourth consecutive quarter of growth on prior year. FY22 gross revenue was $104.2m, up 123% pcp and more than double FY21. Bubs has received FDA discretion for all its six Bubs Infant Formula products to be imported, with over 540,000 tins delivered between May and July.

Nyrada Inc (ASX:NYR)
Nyrada’s PCSK9 inhibitor has been shown to block the early stages of atherosclerosis. These esults relate to a study run in a novel human tissue-engineered blood vessel model of atherosclerosis developed by researchers at Duke University. They will be presented in a poster at the North American Vascular Biology Organisation conference.

Maca (ASX:MLD)
Maca announced three new civil contract awards with a total value of approximately $115 million. This includes early works contract on Rio Tinto’s Western Range Project, which is expected to generate $60 million in revenue. It has also won a contract to build the eastern package of the Hall Road upgrade which is expected to generate $40 million of revenue. A $16 million contract has also been won on further civil works package with Roy Hill Iron Ore operation in the Pilbara.

Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM)
Seven new kimberlite targets have been identified on the Merlin Diamond Project in the Northern Territory through interpretation of historical De Beers airborne hyperspectral data. The seven selected targets will be followed up with visual ground inspection, soil samples for spectral analysis and heavy mineral soil samples.