Morning Bell 4 September

In the US, Wall Street closed mixed overnight. The Dow Jones ended the day marginally down with a 0.05% decline, while the S&P500 gained 0.51% and the tech heavy NASDAQ advanced 1.02%, driven by strong gains from Alphabet and Apple.

Europe also saw a rebound overnight: the Stoxx600 closed up 0.66%, the FTSE gained 0.67%, the German DAX advanced 0.46% and the French CAC was the biggest winner, ending the day up 0.86%

Locally yesterday the ASX200 saw its worst day since April’s Liberation day, closing down a sharp 1.82%, with all 11 key sectors in the red. The sell off was primarily driven by rising bond yields in the global bond market – as investors are less willing to pay high prices for stocks with higher risk potential when bonds are paying higher interest rates.

What to watch today: 

• The SPI futures suggest the ASX200 will rally after a few consecutive days of losses and open up 0.41% - tracking overseas gains overnight
• In commodities:
  • Crude oil has dropped 2.77% to 63.77 US dollars per barrel, ahead of weekend meeting of OPEC producers that is expected to increase production targets in October
  • Gold has continued its record run, rising another 0.7% to a fresh high of 3559.47 US dollars per ounce. This renewed gold rally comes as investors seek a safe haven amid continuing expectations of a fed rate cut this month, further concerns over US debt levels, and renewed uncertainty around the US tariff implications and outlook.
  • Meanwhile, iron ore has risen 0.69% to 103.24 US dollars per tonne.
• Also today BHP (ASX:BHP) will go ex-dividend, so investors may notice a drop in the share price of around the dividend value for this reason.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained its Buy rating on COG Ltd (ASX:COG) and raised the target price to $2.25 per share off the back of the company’s announcement of the 100% acquisition of EasiFleet Pty Ltd, effective September 1.
• And Trading Central have identified a bearish signal on Pro Medicus (ASX:PME), indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $290.81 to the range of $235-$245 per share over a period of 52 days according to the standard principles of technical analysis.