Morning Bell 11 August

Wall Street rallied on Friday following a strong week of earnings results indicating company and economic resilience in the wake of President Trump’s tariffs. The Nasdaq closed at a record high, ending the day up 0.98% to 21,450 points, while the S&P 500 added 0.78% and the Dow Jones ended the day up 0.47%. For the week the major averages each posted notable gains with the S&P 500 rising 2.4%, the Dow Jones climbing 1.4% and the Nasdaq posted a strong 3.9%. Apple shares boosted markets on Friday with a 13% surge after announcing plans to spend US$600bn over 4-years to appease President Trump’s push to manufacture in the U.S.

In Europe on Friday markets closed higher on Friday on reports the U.S. and Russia plan to end Russia’s war with Ukraine. The STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, Germany’s DAX and the UK’s FTSE100 each closed flat, and the French CAC ended the day up 0.4%.

Across the Asia region on Friday, markets closed mostly lower with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng falling 0.89%, while China’s CSI index lost 0.24%, and South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.55%, while Japan’s Nikkei ended the day up 1.85%.

Locally on Friday the ASX 200 posted a 0.27% loss as a sharp selloff in financials and healthcare stocks weighed on the key index. For the week though the key index managed to post a 1.7% gain ahead of the expected rate cut announcement out of the RBA this week. Block  (ASX:XYZ) soared 7.5% on Friday after posting increased spending activity on After-pay which lifted profit and growth over Q2, while Nick Scali (ASX:NCK) shares also soared 8.6% after its ANZ business saw a 7.3% rise in H2 sales despite a depleted consumer spend environment.

What to watch today:

• On the commodities front this morning, oil is trading 0.83% lower at US$63.35/barrel, gold is up 0.06% at US$3397/ounce and iron ore is up 0.01% at US$101.22/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has slightly strengthened against the greenback to buy 65.25 US cents, 96.33 Japanese yen, 48.52 British pence and 1 New Zealand dollar and 9 cents.
• Ahead of Monday’s trading session the SPI futures are anticipating the market will open the day up 0.06%.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter has downgraded the rating on Monadelphous Group (ASX:MND) from a hold to a sell following the release of the company’s FY25 result preview including the anticipation of weaker 2H profitability, and current overvaluation of the stock trading on a 23.8x FY26 PE. MND trades at a 55% premium to Industrial Services peers and is forecast to deliver the lowest FY26 earnings growth in the peer group.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Kelly Partners Group (ASX:KPG) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 20-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $10.34 to the range of $9.65 to $9.85 according to standard principles of technical analysis.