Market Highlights: Commods down, crypto up, Wall Street mixed, France not broken

The ASX has made modest gains on Tuesday as Wall Street edged further into record territory ahead of key inflation reads.

ASX on Tuesday: just pick a spot you like. Via Getty

• ASX 200 opened slightly higher  

• NVDA adds 2% as more Wall St records tumble

• Most commodities were in decline overnight 

Local markets looked good for a positive morning on the back of fresh record highs for both the tech heavy Nasdaq and the S&P500. And so it proved.

At 8.30am AEST, the ASX 200 (SPI) futures contract was pointing up by 16 points or about 0.2%, with regional traders looking ahead to Westpac's consumer sentiment read and the NAB's business confidence numbers later this morning.

In New York overnight the trade was tepid, but the record kept falling. Traders will tread water for another session or two ahead of this weeks US CPI read and the kick off of Q2 earnings reports featuring the usual suspect big banks (JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) on Friday.

US earnings have come to traditionally kick things off with the bellwether read the major banks offer the broader US economy.

Mucking things up, as per, is a major bank – this time the investment bank Goldman Sachs, encouraging clients overnight to get into Wells Fargo as an attractive options trade candidate ahead of results on Friday after the close.

The S&P500 added 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.3%, both extending a run of record closes.

The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%.

In company news, Apple (AAPL) added 0.7% for a new closing market cap a smidge off US$3.49trn.

Next door, literally, and in hot pursuit is Nvidia (NVDA), which added a lazy 2%, inching toward the world's largest company by mkt cap at US$3.15trn.

Over in Europe, markets just closed slightly lower in the wake of the ball-searingly anxious French elections, which have delivered both a parliamentary stalemate and fury from the excluded right-wing RN's last-place finish.

In Paris, the left partied and the CAC40 lost a mere 0.6%.

Meanwhile, a look round the 'hood: Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures is looking good for a positive open, while over in Honkers, the Hang Seng index (HSI) futures are sitting near at 17,530, above the HSI’s last close of 17,524.06.

The ASX200 is currently 1.11% off its 52-week high.

Meanwhile, in commodity markets ... almost everyone (save LNG) had a bad night.

In other markets …

Gold price was down 1.2% at US$2,361.19.

Oil prices –Brent crude oil fell 1%% to US$85.70 a barrel

US Treasury notes were mixed, with the 2 Year yield up at 4.63% and the 10 Year yield unchanged at 4.28%.

The yield on Australian 2 Year government bonds was down at 4.20% while the 10 Year yield was also down at 4.36%

The Australian dollar was 67.33 US cents, down from its previous close of 67.47.

The iron ore price fell by 1.55%% to US$111.00 a tonne.

Finally, in Cryptoland on Tuesday, Bitcoin( BTC) added 1.05% to $56,650. Ether added 3% to $3007-ish.

5 ASX small caps to watch today

Killi Resources (ASX:KLI) says that fresh assays indicate a new epithermal gold system at Kaa target, nicely exposed at surface, thank you.

Killi says we're looking at:

• Multiple high-grade Au-Cu rock chips including "an outstanding 238g/t Au and 5.4% Cu."
• Results extend the current mineralisation over 1.8km and remains open along strike with results confirming highgrade gold-copper-silver mineralisation in association with highly anomalous pathfinder elements of antimony, bismuth, mercury and tellurium..
• Exploration field programs continue with surface mapping and an IP survey currently underway, while a maiden drill program will follow the IP Survey.

Hastings Technology Metals (ASX:HAS) is pretty pleased to share that the "world’s leading producer of rare earths permanent magnets", the HK-listed JL Mag Rare-Earth Co. just made a $7 million strategic investment in Hastings - snapping up some 19.6 million shares at $0.36 per new ordinary share (utilising its placement capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1).

The $3.1bn JL Mag is the world’s largest producer of high-performance rare earth permanent magnets by volume.

Hastings says that following completion of the strategic investment, JL Mag will own 9.8% of the enlarged issued share capital of Hastings, and Han Yu, Vice President of JL Mag, will join the Board of Hastings. The $0.36 price tag is at a premium of 22.8% to Hastings’ 10-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) and a 38.8% premium to the 30-day VWAP.

Charger Metals (ASX:CHR) says reverse circulation (RC) drilling has kicked off at the Lake Johnston Lithium Project, in WA.

Two drill programmes for up to 5,000m in total will test priority lithium targets including the strike extensions of the known high-grade spodumene mineralisation at the Medcalf Prospect; and first holes into the large surface lithium anomalies at the Mt Gordon Prospect. The programmes are expected to take 6 – 8 weeks.

Still in Li2O, MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM) says that initial Flash Joule Heating (FJH) tests show a fairly astounding 92% reduction in calcination time of spodumene concentrate from a lithium mine over conventional processing in a rotary kiln. In short, MTM reckons it's found a way to remove the calcination step - the most energy depleting aspect of hardrock production. MTM says the calcination process has the "potential to eliminate or significantly enhance the most energy intensive step in hardrock lithium production.

City Chic Collective (ASX:CCX) is successfully lighter and more dynamic this morning after succesfully offloading one of its US businesses.

CCX says it completed the divestment of its US based Avenue business to FullBeauty Brands, in a deal which "aligns with the Group's strategy of focusing on the core City Chic customer in ANZ and the US."  The deal was subject to a number of conditions which have now been satisfied.

Originally published as Market Highlights: Commods down, crypto up, Wall Street mixed, France not broken