• The ASX will open lower on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street
  • Apple has lost US$165 billion of market cap in the last few days
  • Fed Chair Jerome Powell expected to speak later tonight

 

The ASX is set to open lower on Wednesday, tracking the movements in New York. At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 Dec futures contract was pointing down by 0.1%.

Wall St closed half a per cent lower overnight ahead of a speech from Fed chair Jerome Powell.

Powell will speak on Wednesday US time, and is expected to reiterate the message of slower pace of rate hikes, while reminding people that inflation still remains a big problem.

Investors remain fixated with anything that involves inflation, and one inflation catalyst could be the proposed Dec 9 rail strike in the US.

President Biden has called on Congress to intervene and block the strike, saying that it would devastate the US economy.

“Let me be clear: a rail shutdown would devastate our economy,” Biden said in a statement. “Without freight rail, many US industries would shut down.”

In stock news, Apple has dipped again, down for a fourth straight session by another 2% as investors weigh the impact of iPhone production delays caused by worker protests at its factory in China.

The world is facing growing iPhone shortages and Apple has erased US$165 billion in market value since the protests began.

 

Oil prices rose 0.5% on hopes the Chinese government will be pressured to ease some rules after the protests, particularly as China’s Covid cases have declined for the first time in a week.

Gold was also up 0.5% overnight to US$1,749 an ounce over optimism that China’s outlook might be starting to improve.

“Gold could extend gains if China’s Health Authority provides some clear signals that are close to tweaking their zero-Covid policy,” said Moya.

Back home, Australians spent more than $7.1 billion across the four-day Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales event, according to data from NAB.

These figures were far higher than the $6 billion reached last year, and data also shows that Aussies preferred online shopping to brick and mortar stores.

“We’re navigating a different economic environment, but our data highlights the resilience of the Australian economy,” said NAB executive for Small Business, Ana Marinkovic.

To cryptos, where Bitcoin has bounced back 1.5% in the last 24 hours to US$16,482.

The co-founder of Mobius Capital, Mark Mobus, predicts that Bitcoin will go down to US$10,000. But he also added that “it’s amazing how Bitcoin prices have held up” despite the FTX fallout.

“Crypto is here to stay as there are several investors who still have faith in it,” Mobius added.

Looking ahead today, the crucial Australian monthly CPI indicator is due to be released.

Other data scheduled for release by the ABS today include building approvals, construction work, and private sector credit figures.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

EMVision (ASX:EMV)
The company has commenced a clinical trial to show that EMV’s portable brain scanner can provide crucial insights to enable clinicians to make critical decisions earlier at the point-of-care. Stage 1 of the trial commences with 30 healthy volunteers, followed by Stage 2 with up to 150 Acute Stroke/Stroke mimic patients.

Halo Food (ASX:HLF)
Halo reported strong sales growth across the group for the half. Sales totalled $41.6m for 1H FY23, an increase of 49% over the pcp. The company however reported a statutory EBITDA loss of $1.3m for the half compared with $737k in 1H FY22.

Pure Resources (ASX:PR1)
Pure has secured 160km2 of claims situated 65km northeast of Patriot Battery Metals’ Corvette discovery, in the Superior Province, Quebec, Canada. The company received approval for claims covering part of the 70km long Laforge Greenstone Belt that has structural and lithological analogies to the nearby La Grande Greenstone Belt, host to the Corvette pegmatite discoveries.

Talga Group (ASX: TLG)
Talga and ACC expect to finalise the graphite anode offtake negotiations and definitive documentation shortly, noting there can be no guarantee the documentation will be finalised. Talga says both parties continue to use ‘commercially reasonable efforts’, and are now at advanced stages of negotiations and completion of legally binding documentation.

Predictive Discovery (ASX:PDI)
Near-resource exploration drilling and targeting has continued at the Bankan Gold Project. Drill results include 8m @ 5.14g/t, 4m @ 5.66g/t and 20m @ 1.02g/t at NEB North, and 2m @ 10.30g/t at NEB East and 12m @ 1.53g/t at SEB.

Read MoreSmall Caps

Featured Companies

You might be interested in