The ASX had a stellar start to the day, with strong gains in the travel sector.
Flight Centre had gained 5% to $18.08 at time of writing, while Corporate Travel was up 6% to $23.35 and Qantas flew 4% higher to $5.19.
CSL was another big contributor to up 0.7% to $298.40.
On the flipside, Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) dipped 3.8% to $29.90 on the sudden exit of its CEO late on Monday.
Mining stocks are flat with Fortescue trading at $17.17 and Rio Tinto reversing early losses to be up 0.4% to $94.23. BHP gained 0.5% to $39.79.
Oil Search is up 1.9% to $4.04 after shareholders voted in favour of a $21 billion merger with Santos, which is up 0.8% to $6.51.
On the consumer staples front, Metcash is 2% higher to $4.34. Coles gained 0.9% to $17.97 and rival Woolworths is up 0.5% at $40.84.
On the bank front, BOQ is up 5% to $7.99.
Looking at the S&P/ASX200, it has gained 46.60 points or 0.64% to 7,291.70.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 0.49% and is currently 4.47% off its 52-week high.
The top-performing stocks in this index are Pointsbet Holdings Limited up 7.22% and Zip Co Limited up 7.14%.
On the crypto front
It’s that’s time of week to check in with the crypto world and eToro analyst and crypto expert Simon Peters’ view of it.
Bitcoin and ether suffer major flash crash
Bitcoin and ether suffered a major flash crash over the weekend, sending crypto asset values down by some 20% at points. Prices have now recovered somewhat but both cryptos remain trading well below pre-weekend levels.
Bitcoin began last week trading in the $57,000 range, with some movement during the week, but nothing remarkable. This changed on Friday, however, as the crypto asset began to fall precipitously. BTC declined to a low of $45,412 in a matter of hours - a near 20% collapse.
Ether likewise fell victim to the flash crash. Having traded up toward $4,700 midweek ETH began to fall in trading on Friday from around $4,600 to a low of $3,652 - a fall of over 20%.
Both crypto assets have regained a measure of stability since, with prices rebounding modestly. BTC is now trading around $47,900 while ETH is trading around $4,000.
Speculation has been rife over what caused the flash crash, with some analysts citing the expiry of leveraged positions. Other evidence meanwhile points to significant increased activity with investors moving crypto assets from wallets to exchanges - making reaction to price movement more precipitous when it comes.
The wider backdrop of investment market fears over Omicron seems to be in play too, however.
Bitcoin spot ETF launches in Canada
Major asset manager Fidelity Investments has a bitcoin spot ETF in Canada.
The ETF - named the Fidelity Advantage Bitcoin ETF - invests directly in bitcoin or through derivative instruments. At least 98% of the ETF’s holdings will be stored in cold wallets.
The fund is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange with the ticker FBTC. The fund will have a 0.4% management fee for investors with customers given the option of investing via Canadian or US dollars.
Canada is a popular destination for crypto ETFs with more than 20 available to Canadian investors. Fidelity’s offering, however, is unique among crypto ETFs in offering physical holdings of bitcoin rather than trading on futures.
Square rebrands in wake of Dorsey Twitter departure
Payments firm Square has announced it is rebranding to ‘Block’, days after its chief executive Jack Dorsey stepped down as head of Twitter.
The company said in its announcement the new name had many associations, but among them was the use of Blockchain technology in some of its projects.
Square Crypto, a separate initiative of the firm which aims to promote the use of bitcoin, is also changing its name to Spiral.
The Square brand won’t be disappearing though - Square remains the name of the firm’s seller business, which is among a stable of brands that now also includes Cash App, TIDAL and TBD54566975.
Jack Dorsey announced his sudden departure from Twitter last week, with many speculating he would move to focus more of his time on crypto and blockchain projects, with his now rebranded firm Block at the forefront of this.
On the small cap front
Recce Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:RCE, OTC:RECEF) is up 12.21% after receiving promising data from its ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of burn wound infections with RECCE® 327 (R327), its proprietary synthetic anti-infective.
Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX:SOR) is up 11%. SOR continues to make progress with the development of battery ink technology and has been granted a patent for Nanocube Memory Ink technology in Japan.
BlackEarth Minerals NL (ASX:BEM) is up 9.52%. BEM has produced a new 2021 scoping study for its 100%-owned Maniry Graphite Project in Southern Madagascar, with significantly improved outcomes and longer project mine life.
FYI Resources Ltd (ASX:FYI) is up 7.27%. FYI kicked off the second phase of its extended pilot plant campaign - the second week of a four-week series of week-long pilot plant trials.
Aldoro Resources Ltd (ASX:ARN) is 3.7% higher as it expects to move ahead with a drilling program later this week targeting pegmatites at the Niobe Project in Western Australia’s Mt Magnet region.
Sovereign Metals Limited (ASX:SVM) is 3.85% higher following the return of metallurgical results described by the company as "outstanding" and which consolidate its view of the quality of the project.
PVW Resources NL (ASX:PVW) is 3.41% higher. PVW has confirmed heavy rare earth (HRE) oxides are present in xenotime mineralisation at its Tanami HRE Project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia with a mineralogy study undertaken by Diamantina Laboratories.
Imugene Limited (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF) is 3.16% higher as it continues to make headway on its first-in-human dose-escalation study using the CHECKvacc drug candidate against metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
Creso Pharma Ltd (ASX:CPH, OTCQB:COPHF) is up 1.11% after Halucenex reported strong revenue growth for the quarter.