Remote controlled weapons maker Electro Optic Systems released a market update this morning that sent stocks up 8.5 per cent to $2.68. EOS says revenue and profit are expected to "more-than-double" in 2019, which would give it revenues of about $170 million, up from $87.13 million in 2018. It is optimistically forecasting revenue of $250 million by 2020 with profits of about $26 million, excluding currency fluctuations.

EOS describes the remote controlled weapons market as $7 billion, of which it has been awarded tenders worth $0.8 billion, tendered for $2.2 billion and is in $2.1 billion pre-tender qualification.

Dual-listed stock Fatfish Blockchain Limited has issued a busy market update this morning. It has abandoned its investment in Singapore-based CryptoFoundry Pte Ltd following "an extensive due diligence process and discussions with the management of CryptoFoundry".

It has also been forced to delay plans to list Fatfish Global Ventures on the Swedish stock exchange after its investment bank advisor Remium had its licence revoked by the Swedish Financial Service Authority. Fatfish shares are up 16.7 per cent at 1.4 cents today.

"FGV is currently in discussion with various corporate finance firms and currently intends on appointing a new reputable financial advisor to advise it on a potential IPO exercise in Sweden."

Plans to sell iFashion Group to Singapore-based MC Payment has been delayed because MC Payment has not reached its own internal hurdles. So iFashion will focus on creating shareholder value instead. Last January FatFish announced a $US1 million investment in Minerium Technology, which planned to list on the London Stock Exchange and secured an industrial site outside of Ulan Bator, Mongolia, to mine crypto currency.

"...it has been decided that in view of the uncertain market sentiment in cryptocurrency, the LSE IPO shall be postponed until the market conditions improve. Meanwhile, Minerium has put on hold its expansion plan to Mongolia, while it continue with its cryptomining operation in Malaysia." Minerium will also now focus on a new blockchain technology called Nimble Wimble Protocol.

And finally parent company iCandy has taken a 20 per cent, $US300,000, stake in UK based video-influencer-marketing company Xcademy. iCandy has published a game called Void Troopers: Sci-fi Tapper, which has generated $115,000 in revenue.

The S&P/ASX 200 has opened with a jump as expected, currently 42.5 points higher at 6222.7.

Early gainers include Infigen Energy, up 5.2 per cent to 50 cents, WiseTech Global is up 4 per cent to $20.81, and Afterpay Touch is up 3.7 per cent to $20.96.

Meanwhile Appen is dropping today, down 7.5 per cent to $22.52 as it comes out of a trading halt after yesterday's announcement it will purchase Figure Eight, Perpetual is down nearly 4 per cent to $41.50, and Regis Resources is down 3.8 per cent to $5.38.

The Financial Review's Sarah Thompson and Anthony Macdonald report Perpetual's new boss Rob Adams must be doing something right. Its shares are back above what buy-out giant KKR was wiling to pay for the company in 2010, thanks to a huge run on Monday. The question is whether he has scared off the doubters, or attracted new buyer interest. On Tuesday morning shares are down 3.4 per cent to $41.79.

Traders reckon there's been some short covering going on, and particularly in recent days as hedge funds close their bets against the company. JPMorgan did a lot of the trade on Monday; a day when Perpetual shares were up 12.3 per cent at $43.20. Short covering is one thing but in a market where cashed-up private equity firms are crawling all over financial services sector businesses, there are others wondering if there is something more going on and whether the rally is buyer led.

A Perpetual spokeswoman declined to comment on Monday night. Sources close to the company said an approach had not been received and its market disclosures were up to date. If the company's shares run hard again on Tuesday, expect the ASX to step in with a speeding ticket. It comes almost a decade after KKR tried to buy the company for $38 to $40 a share. The offer was rejected by Perpetual's board.

National Australia Bank's next chairman Phil Chronican has vowed the bank will step up the pace of compensating customers, as he reiterated the need to revamp executive pay after last year's investor backlash. In letter to NAB shareholders on Tuesday, Mr Chronican said his focus as the leader of the bank would be on winning back trust, after an "extremely challenging" period for NAB.

"The enormity of this task is not lost on me, because the royal commission is right. There is a big gap between where we are today and where we need to be," Mr Chronican said. "We have let down our customers. We have let down you, our owners. And we have let down the community. We have also let down our people on the frontline who do a great job, day in, day out, serving customers," Mr Chronican said.

Story by Clancy Yeates will be online soon

Real Estate firm McGrath Limited is waving goodbye to chief financial officer Glynn Wright, with the firm looking for a replacement to start in June.

"We are grateful to Glynn for the integral role that he has played in the McGrath Management team for the past 18 months. Glynn has led a substantial restructure of the group's financial operations during this period of business turnaround," chief executive Geoff Lucas.

McGrath is closed near five-year lows at 26 cents yesterday.

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SPI futures up 32 points or 0.5% to 6218 near 5am AEDT

AUD +0.2% to 70.60 US cents

On Wall St at 1.56pm: Dow +0.6% S&P 500 +1.3% Nasdaq +1.9%

IG MARKETS LIVE

The ASX is poised for a strong open as Wall Street started its week with a bounce. It's been an up-and-down market of late. Global stocks are moving in unison, and have swung from broad-based losses on Friday, to broad-based gains overnight. US equities are naturally the exemplar and are a responsible for driving overall risk appetite. With an hour left in trade (and as a quick aside, Wall Street closes at 7am AEDT for the next few weeks) the S&P500 is up well over 1 per cent. It's been a day of relatively low activity. However, breadth is expansive: over 90 per cent of stocks are higher for the session. After last week's losses, the S&P500 is some way from the key resistance at 2815. The fundamental strength of the market will be assessed by its ability to rechallenge that level.

It was topsy-turvy yesterday, as far as the ASX's behaviour went within the context of the global rally in equities. Unlike during stages of last week, the ASX200 was a thin-cut of red in an otherwise sea of green, when looking at the global equity index map. Australian stocks will join the party this morning, and according to the SPI Futures contract, will bust out of the gate at today's open with a 34-point rally. Inducing from European and North American trade what we might see today: materials stocks may follow their international counterparts, energy stocks may track a lift in oil, and Australia's growth stocks in the biotechnology industry should follow US tech's run higher.