The local market see-sawed throughout the first trading session of the week before closing the day down 0.28%, led by a sell-off in utilities and tech stocks, while real estate stocks recovered some losses from Friday’s sharp sell-off.

Looking at the best performing stocks today, Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) recovered some of last week’s losses to close 12.37% higher today after the lithium miner released another update on its Kachi Lithium Project to alleviate investor concerns over the dispute with its project partner Lilac Solutions, with Lake Resources today saying that ongoing work is being done by Lilac and all parties are confident that on-site operations will be successful. Other stocks that investors bought into today included Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and a number of other lithium producers today as investors pile into the EV-battery metal sector today. Oz Minerals (ASX:OZL) and Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) also each added more than 3% today. Investors sharply sold out of Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA) shares today as today is the first day the company trades as part of the ASX200, while Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG) fell 5.75% today and Breville Group (ASX:BRG) lost 5.2%. Investors also fled buy now, pay later stocks today, which saw Block (ASX:SQ2) shares tumble 4.46%, as investors speculate an aggressive rate hike from the Fed’s in the US will be announced on Wednesday.

The top traded stocks by Bell Direct clients today were Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS), Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC), BHP Group (ASX:BHP), Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) and Allkem (ASX:AKE).

Taking a look at economic data, tomorrow is the big release day of the RBA’s September meeting minutes which investors have been anticipating to determine whether the RBA really is dovish about the way forward for lower interest rate hikes or whether they will continue to aggressively act to curb inflation.