Morning Bell 14 April

Wall Street ended the rollercoaster week of last week in the green on Friday after possibly the most volatile week in NYSE history as investors responded live to Trumps tariff updates as they were announced. The Dow Jones rose 1.56%, the S&P500 rose 1.81% and the Nasdaq ended the last trading session of the week up 2.06%. The rise in investor optimism on Friday was due to the White House remaining optimistic a deal on tariffs would be done with China. Let’s hope for some more clarity and calm on global markets this week.

In Europe on Friday markets in the region closed mostly lower to round off a choppy week for stocks in the Eurozone. The STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.9%, the French CAC dropped 0.3%, and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day up 0.64%.

Across the Asia region on Friday markets closed mixed as investors assessed escalating trade wars with the US. Japan’s Nikkei lost almost 3%, South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.5%, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.13% and China’s CSI index ended the day up 0.41%.

Locally on Friday the ASX200 fell 0.82% with every sector aside from consumer discretionary stocks ending the day in the red, with healthcare taking the biggest hit amid Trump’s latest tariff announcement on producers in the sector. For the week, the ASX200 lost just 0.28% despite the extreme highs and lows of the trading week.

What to watch today:

• Gold miners rallied last week as the price of the precious commodity topped US$3200/ounce for the first time later in the week.
• On the commodities front this morning oil is trading 2.38% higher at US$61.50/barrel, gold is up 1.5% at US$3236.55/ounce and iron ore is up just 0.06% at US$99.95/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has slightly improved against most currencies to buy 62.86 US cents, 90.64 Japanese Yen, 49.03 British Pence and 1 New Zealand dollar and 8 cents.
• Ahead of Monday’s trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day up 0.23%.
• This week will be interesting on the tariffs front as we ended last week with Trump raising total tariffs on China to 145% but backtracked on electronics and certain imports that support large caps like Apple.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has downgraded the rating on Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC) from a hold to a sell as the analyst believes valuation has been overextended and the current share price prices in optimistic expectations. The analyst still believes Lynas is a high-quality business with viable growth options and a strong management team.
• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Waypoint REIT (ASX:WPR) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 90-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price will rise from the close of $2.50 to the range of $2.65 to $2.69 according to standard principles of technical analysis.