Description:

Well earnings season has now wrapped up, and Aussie shares are expected to start the month of September lower, amid a further sell-off in the US as investors prepare for even higher interest rates.

All three US benchmarks closed lower for the fourth straight session, and for the month of August, the Dow Jones, S&P500 and Nasdaq all finished about 4% lower.  

Across the sea in Europe, markets also closed lower as investors continue to fear higher interest rates and a looming economic downturn.

What to watch today:

• The ASX200 is expected to open 1% lower if you go by the SPI futures.  
• In commodities:
  
  
  • Oil prices continue to slide so energy shares like Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS) and Santos (ASX:STO) could have another tough day ahead. Recession fears continue to weigh on sentiment. 
  • The gold price traded lower, meaning gold has recorded its fifth monthly decline in a row. Keep an eye on stocks like Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR), Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) and Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST).
  • The spot iron ore price trades nearly 4% lower so keep watch of ASX iron ore players like Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG), BHP and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO).  
• Stocks going ex-dividend today include AGL Energy (ASX:AGL), BHP Group (ASX:BHP), Credit Corp Group (ASX:CCP), Jumbo Interactive (ASX:JIN), Platinum Asset Management (ASX:PTM) and Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC).  
• If you hold Dicker Data (ASX:DDR) you will receive your dividend payment today.  
• A new company debuting on the ASX today is Aeramentum Resources, an Australian mineral exploration company. It will be trading under the ticker code AEN. 

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter have maintained its Buy rating on Nickel Industries (ASX:NIC), with a price target of $1.83. Bell Potter believe NIC has a strong growth outlook and undemanding valuation multiples. At its current share price of $0.99, Bell Potter’s price target of $1.83 implies about 85% share price growth in a year. 
• Trading Central has a bullish signal on Computershare (ASX:CPU) indicating that the stock price may rise from its close of $24.70 to the range of $26.50 - $26.90 in the next 6 days according to standard principals of technical analysis.