• ASX200 is in the green on Wednesday morning
  • New British PM brings yields back to Pre-Liz levels
  • Amazon and Meta to report after the close tonight

Local shares are set to open higher again on Wednesday morning after a rather light night of bean-counting here at home.

After half-an-hour of play, the benchmark is tracking the gains in New York, up 0.5%.

Small caps are ahead by 0.8%.

Overnight, Wall St rallied again with all three major benchmarks rising – the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced about 1.1%, the S&P 500 rose 1.6%, while the crazy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.2%.

Those gains, on the back of a drop in bond yields, helped the major averages extend their rally for a hat-trick of wins.

The US two-year yield fell slightly last night but the 10-year fell 13 points to 4.11%. The pound rose and the US dollar index fell 1.0%.

The result was another welcome win for Wall St and most particularly the tech-heavy Nasdaq which has been due for some pole positions.

The S&P500 done good too, while the dot dour Dow hit a 6-week high.

After some timid trade yesterday – perhaps in fear of shenanigans hidden in last night’s budget – all Aussie sectors came home in positive territory, sans energy and materials, which fell 1.6% and 1.2% respectively.

Lay that at the feet of a 12.6% dive for Ampol (ASX:ALD) on weak quarterlies. Then the coal plays found a coal hole. New Hope Corp (ASX:NHC) down 6.2%, Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) down 4.5% and OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL) down 4.3%.

Looking ahead:

We’re free of any budget trickery likely to make our markets shaken or stirred.

Maybe there’s some love hidden away for child or aged care-related stocks.

Could also be some blowback over the Albo government consideration to get involved in the energy markets. Anyway, it’s all here laid out for you in this morning’s traditional “what’s in it for small cap fans” wrap.

Back on Wall Street, Microsoft reported weaker-than-expected cloud growth. Google gave us its most un-Googley quarterly revenue growth since in almost a decade, on weaker ad demand. The daddy of search lost over 6%.

These hits are likely to weigh on the Nasdaq and other weak earnings will drag down the braoder S&P500.

Meta and Amazon report tonight.

And we’re getting the long-awaited CPI data today. Fingers crossed.

The latest new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged “economic stability”, and like a fairy tale of old, long-end UK bond yields magically fell back to the levels they were before anyone had even wondered what Liz might have locked away in her “mini-budget of destruction”.

Elsewhere, gold prices are relatively flat at $US1,647 as is Bitcoin (BTC) circa $US19,337.

I’m not doing oil. Its meaningless spasms is like reporting on Ben Affleck’s love life.

 

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Global Lithium Resources (ASX:GL1) – Is coming out of a trading halt with two big GL1 things ready to roll, a project acquisition and capital raising…. they’ll BRB (see below).

Widgie Nickel (ASX:WIN) – Widgie’s out at Mount Edwards setting up a scoping study.

Breaker Resources (ASX:BRB) – Breaker has agreed to divest its remaining stake in Manna and other surrounding tenure to a subsidiary of Global Lithium Resources (hi guys).

The offer is unconditional and Breaker will receive a $60mn cash payment.

BRB keeps all its rights to explore and/or develop gold and other precious metals consistent with its core strategy at the Lake Roe Gold Project as well as a 1.5% NSR royalty on non-precious metals from the expanded area giving it continued exposure to any additional lithium discoveries in the area.

GL1 will hold a first right of refusal over the sale of the royalty by Breaker.

Breaker chairman and acting CEO, Peter Cook called it a genuine win-win deal for both groups.

“Breaker sells its non-core minority interest and gets a substantial cash injection that leaves the company with a cash balance of approximately $82 million when the company has a market capitalisation of just $75 million today. Global Lithium as the 100% owner of Manna and now underlying title holder has the freedom to advance its plans in an unconstrained and unrestricted manner.”

QMines (ASX:QML) – QMines is holding an equity raise by way of a placement, to fund further mining for the second most rare letter in the English alphabet. In the meantime, “Kw” will be a suitable substitute until stocks are replenished.

Neurotech International (ASX:NTI) – Neurotech is hosting a capital raise… but first, there’s news regarding 20-week data from its ongoing phase I/II clinical trial. That’s a combo that bodes well for all.

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