Market Highlights: Wall Street sharply lower again, Musk's warning on Cybertruck, and 5 ASX small caps to watch

ASX to open lower again after another selloff in New York
Fed’s Jerome Powell signals more rate hikes in a speech
Elon Musk says Tesla’s Cybertruck could be too difficult to produce in volume

Aussie shares are poised to open lower again after another sharp selloff on Wall Street overnight. At 8am AEST, the ASX 200 index futures was pointing down by -0.6%.

In New York, the S&P 500 tumbled by -0.85%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was down by -0.75%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq crashed by -0.96%.

Stocks fell as bond yields surged following Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments that US inflation was still too high, signalling his possible intention to hike rates further.

“Inflation is still too high, and a few months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal,” Powell said.

Powell also made it clear he was closely watching bond yields, which have risen more than 50 basis points since the Fed’s last meeting in September.

To stock news, Tesla slumped -9% after its Q3 profits dropped by 44% following big price cuts, as announced after the bell yesterday.

CEO Elon Musk added to negative sentiment on the stock after saying “there will be enormous challenges in reaching volume production with Cybertruck, and making the Cybertruck cash flow positive.”

“Tesla is an incredibly capable ship. We’re not going to sink, but, even a great ship in a storm has challenges,” Musk told analysts.

Meanwhile, Netflix, as expected, surged 16% after reporting swelling subscriber numbers post-market on Wednesday.

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) also popped +4% after beating analysts estimates for Q3 sales.

The world will slow down next year, says S&P

The S&P Global Market Intelligence says real GDP globally is projected to slow to 2.3% in 2024, as a result of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“The Israel-Hamas conflict adds to already elevated economic uncertainty. A major escalation in the conﬂict would make a material difference to economic prospects and our forecasts,” said S&P in a note.

A US slowdown is on the cards, says S&P, with GDP falling from 2.3%-2.5% in 2023, to 1.5%-1.6% in 2024.

Western Europe is on track for a mild recession next year.

Mainland China’s real GDP forecast for 2024 meanwhile is unchanged at 4.6%, with signs of stabilisation following the recent policy stimulus.

S&P also said the Asia-Pacific economic outlook for calendar 2024 is for “sustained economic expansion.”

In other markets …

Oil prices surged another 2% as the war escalates in Palestine, with Brent now trading at US93.31 a barrel.

Gold is inching back towards the US$2k level again as more capital sought safety, with bullion trading +1.3% higher to US$1,974.25 an ounce.

Iron ore futures slipped by -2% to US$119.50 a tonne.

The Aussie dollar fell slightly by -0.1% to US63.29.

Bitcoin meanwhile jumped 1.6% in the last 24 hours to US$28,704.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Genex Power (ASX:GNX)
Genex has secured an offtake deal with EnergyAustralia for the 258MW Kidston Stage 3 Wind Project. The offtake covers 30% of the project generation capacity at a fixed price over a 10-year term. The deal marks a strengthening of partnership between Genex and EnergyAustralia.

Alchemy Resources (ASX:ALY)
Alchemy announced a Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Overflow deposit at the 80% owned Lachlan Project in NSW. MRE (JORC 2012-compliant) was reported at 342koz @ 1.30g/t AuEq (Inferred, 0.7g/t AuEq cut-off) from surface. Numerous advanced targets are yet to be assessed, including the high-grade Yellow Mountain Prospect 20km to the south, with all areas having little to no modern exploration.

Voltaic Strategic Resources (ASX:VSR)
Voltaic has recently completed an airborne magnetic and radiometric survey across the Paddys Well Project in WA. 16 potential carbonatite intrusions, which are prospective for REE and niobium, have been identified. Several high priority targets are in close proximity to the Neo prospect area where recent drilling identified a large, near-surface REE-enriched clay system.

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R)
Bedrock copper sulphide mineralisation has been confirmed by XRF and assays at the company’s 100%-owned Whaleshark Project in WA. Anomalous assay results indicated up to 0.2% Cu and 0.11g/t Au. Examination has highlighted geochemical vectors that could be useful for further exploration for IOCG (Iron Oxide Copper Gold) mineralisation at Whaleshark. Further drilling is planned following completion of the heritage survey.

Mantle Minerals (ASX:MTL)
Extensive drilling program totaling 15,000m will commence at the Roberts Hill tenement by 30 October. The Hemi deposit lies at the heart of Degrey’s 10.6Moz gold mineralisation system immediately to the south of Mantle’s Roberts Hill tenements. Mantle is exploring for extensions of this system.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Voltaic Strategic Resources and Miramar Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.