Morning Bell 24 July

To start, we wanted to let you know that for a limited time only, you can earn 4.75% p.a. on new ‘ready to invest’ Bell Direct accounts. Visit the Bell Direct website to find out more. Well, as investors await the impending tariff deadline, the US has finalised an agreement with Japan, including reciprocal tariffs of 15%  on the nations exports to the US. All three US benchmarks rallied, with the Dow Jones jumping 500 points or 1.14%, the S&P500 up 0.78% and the Nasdaq up 0.61%. US - EU trade deal investor optimism also saw US equities advance. 

The German DAX up 0.83%, France’s CAC up 1.37%, the FTSE100 up 0.42% and the STOXX600 up 1.08%. Our local market also advanced yesterday with 10 of the 11 industry sectors closing in the green. Materials, energy and financials were in the lead, bringing the ASX200 0.69% higher at the close.

What to watch today:

• Following global markets rallying overnight, the Aussie market is set to rise 0.26% at the open this morning, according to the SPI futures.
• In commodities,
  • Crude oil is up 0.2% trading at US$65.43 per barrel, marking the fourth straight day of losses. 
  • The safe haven gold price saw a 1.3% decline overnight, now sitting at US$3,386.86 an ounce, pulling back slightly from a five-week high, pressured by a wave of trade deals that dampened the metal's safe-haven appeal.
  • And iron ore is trading 0.3% higher at US$98.11 per barrel.
  • In economic news, this morning we’ll receive the S&P Global Manufacturing and Services flash PMI, a forward looking estimate of the final producers managers index out next week.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter maintain a Buy rating on Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) and have downgraded their 12- month price target from $9.20 to $8.70 as FY26 production guidance lower than what was modelled for by Bell Potter, based off a ramp to follow processing capacity in mid FY26 and as higher costs see an EBITA decline. At the current share price of $7.25, the target price implies 20% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central have identified a bullish signal in NRW Holdings (ASX:NHW) indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $3.22 to the range of $4.05 - $4.20 over 49 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.