• The ASX will open lower again on Tuesday
  • Russia said it will shut down Nord Stream 1 pipeline for 3 days
  • Samsung to start crypto exchange

Local shares are set to open lower today. At 8am AEST, the ASX 200 September futures contract is pointing down by 0.80%.

Wall Street fell again overnight by around 2% – the biggest one-day drop since June – ahead of this week’s gathering of global central bankers and policymakers for an economic symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The focus of that meeting will be on Fed boss Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday (US time), which is expected to revolve around his thoughts on future interest rate hikes.

Comerica Bank chief economist Bill Adams said: “Comerica anticipates the Fed will hike their target rate by 0.50 percentage point in September and follow with 0.25 percentage point increases at its November and December meetings.”

US tech stocks fell, with Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft falling over 3%.

Meme stocks crashed as AMC plunged 42% after AMC Preferred Equity (APE) class of shares went on sale today. Bed & Bath shed another 16%.

European natgas prices surged on Monday after Russia’s state-owned energy firm Gazprom said it would shut down Europe’s single biggest piece of gas infrastructure (the Nord Stream 1 pipleline) for a three-day unscheduled maintenance work from the end of August.

“Europe’s energy crisis is just getting bad news all over the board.  Heatwaves have put a strain on supplies and it seems any disruptions in the winter could be devastating,” said Oanda analyst, Edward Moya.

Oil prices rose 0.5% overnight as the Saudi energy minister said OPEC+ could cut production to confront market challenges.

“Oil’s true enemy is global growth fears, and they are not going away anytime soon,” said Moya.

In other markets, base metal prices were mixed while the gold price fell 1% to US$1,735 an ounce.

Bitcoin has slumped by another 1.20% in the last 24 hours to US$21,187.

Meanwhile, Samsung has reportedly just filed to launch a crypto exchange in South Korea in 2023.

Ahead today, ANZ and Ray Morgan Consumer Confidence Index is due out. In the US, the S&P global purchasing manager surveys for August and new home sales for July are scheduled.

ASX companies set to release their earnings today include: Endeavour Group, Kogan, Seek and The Reject Shop.
 

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Wellard (ASX:WLD)
The cattle exporter has recorded its third consecutive profitable year in FY22. Revenue was US$22m, up 3.7% on pcp. Bottom line NPAT was US$9.9m, a 421% increase on the pcp. Looking ahead, Wellard expects the predominance of breeder cattle voyages to North Asia to continue from FY22 through to FY23.

Camplify (ASX:CHL)
The recreational vehicle (RV) marketplace recorded a revenue for FY22 of $16.36m, a pcp growth rate of 93.96%. Future bookings values were over double that of FY21, with $14.7m at the end of FY22. Looking ahead, with still less than 1% of RVs listed on the platform that are registered in its markets, Camplify says it is very well positioned to continue the strategy of scaling.

Jade Gas (ASX:JGH)
Jade has delivered substantial maiden Contingent Resources at its flagship TTCBM Project in Mongolia. The Resources estimate for the Red Lake area came in at 1C of 118 Bcf, 2C of 246 Bcf and 3C of 305 Bcf – the largest Contingent Resources for coal bed methane in Mongolia to date.

Mader Group (ASX:MAD)
The heavy equipment maintenance services company delivered record annual revenue of $402.1m, up 32% on pcp. Underlying NPAT was $26m, up 34% on pcp. The company has released a revenue guidance for FY23 to be at least $510m, delivering an NPAT of at least $33m.

Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO)
Chile’s newest large scale copper discovery was confirmed at Culpeo’s Lana Project. Geological mapping has identified multiple outcropping breccia and copper oxide zones. Drilling results include: 257m @ 0.95% Cu,81ppm Mo from 170m, and 173m @ 1.05% Cu,50ppm Mo from 313m2.

Read MoreMarkets

Featured Companies

You might be interested in