ASX to edge closer to record high today after Wall Street lifted
Faraday Future up over +2000pc last week
Oil and nickel stocks on watch today
The ASX 200 is poised to open higher and edge closer to its record high when the market opens on Monday. At 8am AEST, the ASX200 futures contract was pointing up by +0.4%.
On Friday, the Dow Jones index closed above 40,000 for the first time after rising by +0.34%. The S&P 500 also rose by +0.12% but the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped by -0.07%.
To summarise what happened last week, investors got excited about the possibility of interest rate cuts after April’s US inflation numbers looked good.
But stocks took a hit on Thursday when Fed officials hinted that rates might stay high for a while. Despite those warnings shaking up the odds of a rate cut in September, the markets still bounced back on Friday.
Reddit jumped another +10%, adding to its +9% gain the previous day, after signing a deal with OpenAI to allow the AI company access to Reddit’s real-time content. This means ChatGPT and OpenAI’s new products will now include Reddit discussions.
The EV-related startup, Faraday Future, closed the week more than 2,100% higher (that’s around 20x higher).
There hasn’t been any news about the company’s financial performance or future outlook, and no analysts have been pushing the stock either. Instead, it appears that the meme stock momentum has been the driver behind its epic rise.
Take-Two Interactive (TTWO), the company behind Rockstar Games and 2K, saw a 1% bump after announcing that the much-anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI will be launched in the second half of 2025.
Oil, nickel in focus today
Meanwhile, oil prices and oil-related stocks will be in focus today after a helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, his foreign minister, and other Iranian officials reportedly crashed in the mountains of northwest Iran on Sunday. A huge rescue operation has kicked off in the foggy forest.
ASX listed nickel miners will also be closely watched today as the price of nickel shot up 7% over the weekend due to riots in New Caledonia, an important supplier worldwide.
The pacific territory of New Caledonia is “under siege” according to the mayor of its capital, after several days of riots that have resulted in six deaths.
Meanwhile later today, the People’s Bank of China will announce its latest loan prime rates. It’s expected that the central bank will keep the 1-year rate at 3.45% and the 5-year rate at 3.95%.
In other markets …
Gold price rose by +1.6% to US$2,242.11 an ounce.
Oil prices lifted further by around +0.80%, with Brent crude now trading at US$84.12 a barrel.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield climbed by 5 basis points (bond prices lower) to 4.42%.
The Aussie dollar lifted by +0.25% to 66.96 cents.
The iron ore price rallied more by +0.8% to US$117.40 a tonne.
Bitcoin meanwhile was down up by -1.5% in the last 24 hours to US$65,244.
5 ASX small caps to watch today
AML3D (ASX:AL3)
US Navy submarine component manufacturing partner, Laser Welding Solutions, will lease additional ARCEMY metal 3D printing systems from AL3, with an option to purchase. The $0.7m order advances AML3D’s strategy to embed its ARCEMY technology in the wider US Navy supply chain.
iTech Minerals (ASX:ITM)
Bench scale metallurgical tests have achieved high purity fine flake graphite suitable for purified spherical graphite (PSG) production. ITM reported average purity of 94% total graphitic carbon (TGC) with excellent recoveries of ~95%.
NOW READ: Q+A: Why iTech Minerals’ Campoona project could be Australia’s next low-cost graphite operation
InteliCare Holdings (ASX:ICR)
Following a successful pilot phase, Hardi Aged Care is now moving forward with full site implementation at the Manly Vale facility. Hardi’s implementation of InteliCare in 42 rooms at Blacktown, Hardi’s second site, will now be brought forward to occur concurrently with the Manly Vale implementation. InteliCare and Hardi had entered into an agreement in February to deploy InteliCare into Hardi’s six residential aged care facilities, supporting almost 600 residents.
Caprice Resources (ASX:CRS)
Final assay results from infill and extensional soils at the Mukinbudin project have confirmed significant anomalism. Infill and extensional sampling at Colosseum (552 soil geochemical samples) has defined an elevated rare earth oxides target of 1.4km x 1.7km (2.7km2), with ~75% of samples within this target area recording geochemical REO anomalism of 2,000ppm+, which remains open to the south.
Gentrack (ASX:GTK)
For the first half, revenue was $102mm up 21% on pcp. EBITDA was $12.3m and tracking well against FY24 guidance. Growth is driven by recent and in-year new customers as well as upsells and upgrades for existing customers. The company’s growth in utilities meanwhile is a result of recent new customer wins alongside upselling new products to our existing customers.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While iTech Minerals is a Stockhead client, it did not sponsor this article.
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