• The ASX will open higher again on Thursday
  • Wall Street rallied overnight ahead of the CPI report
  • FTX liquidators found billions in liquid coins

 

Aussie shares are poised to track New York higher on Thursday. At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 Jan futures contract was pointing up by 0.5%.

Overnight, Wall Street’s bullish sentiment continues as major indexes rallied by around 1% ahead of the CPI release later today (US time).

Nasdaq has notched up its fourth consecutive days of gains as bond yields pulled back ahead of the report.

“Right now might be the calm before the inflation storm as we are not seeing major positioning ahead of this US CPI report,” said OANDA analyst, Edward Moya.

Airline stocks got battered as flights across the US were grounded for a couple hours following a key failure of the FAA’s pilot notification system.

The FAA issued a statement, “THE FAA is experiencing an outage that is impacting the update of NOTAMS. All flights are unable to be released at this time.”

The NOTAMS system is essential for safety as it provides pilots with real-time flight hazards and restrictions.  United Airlines and other airlines announced they are temporarily delaying all domestic flights until they learn more from the FAA.

NOW READ: Wall Street airline stocks fall out of the sky in pre-trade after widespread US systems failure

After Goldman Sach laid off 3,200 staff, now Blackrock said it will make 500 staff, or 2.5% of its workforce, redundant.

“The uncertainty around us makes it more important than ever that we stay ahead of changes in the market and focus on delivering for our clients,” Larry Fink, Blackrock CEO, told Bloomberg.

Tesla meanwhile is close to sealing a deal to open a manufacturing facility for its EVs in Indonesia. The factory is expected to produce as many as 1 million vehicles a year.

Over the next few days, earnings season for both Wall Street and the ASX will get underway.

According to the Earnings Trends report, aggregate S&P 500 earnings for Q4 are currently expected to be down -7.3% on a +4% higher revenues.

In other markets, Brent crude surged another 3.5% overnight as oil demand comes back.

“Expectations are high that China’s demand is about to skyrocket,” said Moya.

Gold prices are not doing much ahead of the CPI report, while Bitcoin was up 0.5% in the last 24 hours to US$17,540.

There are reports that FTX liquidators might have found more than $US5 billion in cash or liquid crypto coins that it can sell to repay creditors.

A large amount of illiquid crypto assets have also been found, according to the advisors.

 

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO)
Bastion says high-grade gold intersections have been received at the Capote Gold Project, confirming shallow mineralisation and significant intercepts. Results include: 5m @ 2.06g/t Au from 42m, and 1.5m @ 4.08g/t Au from 157.5m.

Marvel Gold (ASX:MVL)
Auger drilling at the Yanfolila Gold Project demonstrates potential for along strike continuity of mineralisation at the Solona gold prospect, with numerous holes containing ≥0.1 g/t Au. A second mineralised vein system parallel with Solona has been delineated, which returned the best intercept of 1.8 g/t Au gold.

Provaris Energy (ASX:PV1)
An MoU has been signed with Norwegian Hydrogen AS to collaborate on the identification and development of green hydrogen value chain projects in the Nordics. The collaboration will accelerate the development of green hydrogen export supply chains, using Provaris’ GH2 Carriers and storage solutions, and Norwegian Hydrogen’s proposed hydrogen production and export sites across the Nordics, including Norway.

Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD)
Resource delineation drilling has commenced at the Mount Ridley Rare Earth Project. Mount Ridley’s Chairman Peter Christie said the key tasks for 2023 include resource delineation drilling and advancing metallurgical studies towards the development of a flow sheet for the extraction of rare earths.

Mayne Pharma (ASX:MYX)
Capital return to shareholders (not the special dividend or share consolidation) will be deferred by at least two months to March 2023. The Board will provide a further update on the capital return in late February or early March, but says it reserves the right to further defer, reduce, or cancel the capital return if it determines such action is in the best interests of the company.

 

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