Morning Bell 18 November

Wall St saw a pullback to open this week, with the losses once again lead by the recently struggling tech sector. The Dow Jones lost 1.2%, the S&P500 dropped 1% while the Nasdaq slipped 0.9%. Nvidia was a big factor weighing down the market, dropping 3% ahead of its Q3 results which are scheduled for Thursday morning Sydney time, as investors remain anxious about stretched evaluations. The results are expected to shape the trajectory of the entire sector for the next few weeks.

In other overseas markets, Europe and Asia saw similar results to the US, with a sea of red across all the major indexes, including the European Stoxx600, Chinese CSI and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng which all dropped over half a percent.

Locally yesterday, the ASX technically did buck the global trend and close in the green, although it was only 1.9 points or 0.02% up. This result did however ensure that the ASX avoided what would have been its longest losing streak since June, had it closed down again. 

What to watch today:

• Today however, the ASX is expected to follow the slip we saw abroad overnight, with the SPI futures indicating a 0.6% drop at the open. 
• Crude Oil is trading down 0.64% at 59 USD and 71 cents per barrel
• Precious metals have also seen similar drops, with gold down 1% to 4042USD per ounce, and silver down 0.76% to 50USD per ounce. 
• Iron ore is trading up 0.45% at 104.42USD per tonne. 

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained its Buy rating on agricultural chemicals supplier Elders (ASX:ELD) with a 12-month price target of $9.45, after the company reported strong results and positive guidance for FY26. 
• And Trading Central have identified a Bearish signal in Aussie Broadband Ltd (ASX:ABB), indicating that the price may fall from the close of $5.51 to the range of $4.80 to $4.95 over a period of 60 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.