BPO TV

Market wraps 24th October 2023

Morning Bell - Sam Kanaan

Wall St closed mixed on Monday as the Nasdaq ended a four-day losing streak and treasury yields retreat from its 5% high. The Dow Jones closed 0.58% lower, the S&P 500 closed 0.17% lower and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day 0.27% in the green.

In terms of US shares, oil company Chevron fell 3.7% following the announcement that the company would be purchasing fellow peer, Hess in an all-stock deal. Pharmacy giant, Walgreens gained 3% following an upgrade from JP Morgan and online security stock Okta retreated 8% following a data breach.

Earnings season continues with tech giants Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft all releasing key information to the stock market this week.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower with the STOXX 600 losing 0.1% on Monday. Retail and travel stocks posted strong gains, however, heavy losses among the miners weighed on the markets in the region.

Germany’s DAX gained just 0.02%, the French CAC gained half a percent, however over in the UK the FTSE 100 lost 0.37%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX 200 closed 0.82% lower with the energy and materials sector losing 3% and 2.34% respectively. This was offset by the health sector which gained 1.53% by market close yesterday.

What to watch today:

  • The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.22% at the open this morning, extending the losing run into Tuesday’s session.
  • On the commodities front this morning,
    • Oil is down 2.21% to 86 US dollars and 13 cents a barrel as efforts to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spreading to a wider conflict in the Middle East are easing concerns about supply disruptions.
    • Gold is down 0.81% to 1965 US dollars an ounce as treasury yields moved up and the Middle Eastern War dented demand for the safe-haven asset.
    • And iron ore is down 0.86% to 115 US dollars a tonne as worries about China’s debt-ridden property sector hampered the outlook on the country’s resource demand.

Trading Ideas:

  • Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Aeris Resources (ASX:AIS) with an unchanged 12-month target of $0.30. The buy rating is maintained as Aeris Resources is a copper-dominant producer with all assets in Australia. Its near-term outlook remains highly leveraged to increasing copper grades at the Tritton copper mine, where high graded ore sources have commenced production and exploration success is likely to sustain it.
  • And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA), indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $97.82 to the range of $71-$76 on a pattern formed over 468 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.