Morning Bell 22 September

Wall Street closed higher on Friday and for the week as investors welcomed the Fed’s rate cut decision on Thursday last week. The Nasdaq rose 0.72%, the S&P500 rallied 0.5% and the Dow Jones gained 0.37% to hit a fresh record at the close. For the week, the Nasdaq added 2.2% while the Dow and S&P500 gained 1% and 1.2% respectively.

Apple shares led the gains on Friday with a 3.2% spike after the company’s latest iPhone went on sale.

In Europe on Friday markets closed lower as investors focused on trade and the state of the European economy. The STOXX600 fell 0.04%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.15%, the French CAC declined just 0.01%, and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day down 0.12%.

Across the Asia region on Friday markets closed lower after the Bank of Japan held rates steady amid concerns of external volatility impacting Japan’s inflation journey. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed flat, India’s Nifty 50 declined 0.55%, and Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.57%.

Locally on Friday the ASX200 posted a positive end to the week amid fresh records on Wall St on Thursday and a healthcare rally locally fuelling a 0.3% gain at the closing bell.

For the week, the key index lost 1.03% as a sharp sell off in energy stocks weighed down the key index.

Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) did much of the heavy lifting in the healthcare sector on Friday with a 7.5% rally after Citi initiated coverage of the commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company with a buy rating, indicating its prostate cancer drug candidate has the potential to become a ‘blockbuster drug’.

Pro Medicus (ASX:PME) also benefited from Citi’s expanded coverage with a rally of 5.5% after Citi named PME among its favourite stock picks for the healthcare sector.

What to watch today:

• Gold miners locally extended their run on Friday as the recent gold spot price rally continued with the price of gold topping US$3659 on Friday. Northern Star Resources added 0.9% on Friday while Evolution Mining ended the day up 1.52%.
• On the commodities front this morning oil is trading 1.34% lower at US$62.72/barrel, gold is up 1.12% at US$3684.75/ounce and iron ore is up 0.2% at US$105.44/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has slightly weakened against the greenback to buy 65.96 U.S. cents, 97.63 Japanese yen, 48.85 British pence and 1 New Zealand dollar and 12 cents.
• Ahead of Monday’s trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day up 0.27% tracking Wall Street’s gains on Friday.

 Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter has initiated coverage of Orica (ASX:ORI) with a buy rating and a 12-month price target of $23.00 as the analyst sees Orica is well-positioned for strong near-term earnings growth across its diversified segments, driven by high-margin products, favourable pricing, and operational improvements. Additionally, the company is on track for de-leveraging and increasing shareholder returns, making it an attractive investment opportunity.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on ResMed (ASX:RMD) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 19-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $41.21 to the range of $45.30 to $46.20 according to standard principles of technical analysis.