Market Highlights: ASX set for a quietly sub-optimal open after tech took a breather in the US

ASX set to open lower this morning after a slow day on Wall Street overnight.
ASX 200 Futures Index was in a fickle mood all morning, hovering around zero change.
Health tech Immugene has some huge news from a major conference in Barcelona.

Local markets are looking like opening slightly lower this morning, as US tech stocks – which have been booming of late – taking a slight breather to give the rest of Wall Street some time in the sub.

Sun. I meant sun. Too soon for sub jokes, apparently, so no sub jokes here.

Overnight, the Dow broke through the completely insignificant 34,000-point mark to finish the day higher by 0.8%, the S&P added 0.45% out of sympathy and the Nasdaq finished flatter the batteries on my phone, which is why I overslept. Again. Sorry.

US Treasury yields jumped 13 basis points to 3.838% on the 10-year, and 14 basis points to 4.859% on the 2-year after stronger than expected GDP data landed with a thud on the steps of the White House.

In US stock news, Tech stocks ended the day largely flat for the sector, with the ever-popular Tesla up just 0.49%.

The big winners included Wells Fargo, adding 4.5% after the bank flew throught the Fed’s annual “Stress Test”, while Caesar’s Entertainment climbed 3.5% because Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.

In European news, London’s FTSE fell 0.38% after the stock market was invaded by dour Yorkshire farmers, but because no one could understand a word they were saying, they were forced to leave with their demands unmet.

Further west, the DAX was down 0.01%, and the French CAC was up 0.36%, as Paris Riot Season got off to a swinging start leaving 40% of the city on fire, up 3.4% from yesterday’s close.

Gold and Brent Crude prices didn’t move very much overnight – either that, or the Reuters website is broken again… Gold is at $US1907.20 an ounce, Crude is at $US74.13 a barrel, Nickel is up to $US24,025/t (+2.02%) and Copper is over 9000!!!, up .27% to $US9002.50/t.

STOCKS TO WATCH THIS MORNING

Imugene (ASX:IMU) has happy news, that its HER-Vaxx treatment produced robust anti-HER-2-IgG* and IgG1 antibody responses in a recent clinical trial. The fresh data has been presented at the World Congress of Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona.

Lincoln Minerals (ASX:LML) is set for a boost on the back of recent news of the company’s drilling program hitting broad zones of shallow, high-grade graphite mineralisation at its Koppio Graphite Resource.

And DigitalX (ASX:DCC) has announced the launch of a “groundbreaking Australian funds management product providing qualified wholesale investors with a simplified and secure access to a portfolio of real world assets through holding shares in traditional fund units in digital token form.”