Wall Street closed lower on Friday but higher for August marking the 4th month of gains for the NYSE. On Friday, the S&P500 fell 0.64%, the Nasdaq lost 1.15%, and the Dow Jones ended the day down 0.2% as investors took money out of the market amid risks of inflationary pressures remaining persistent into the new month following the U.S. core PCE increasing 2.9% for July which was in-line with expectations but still showed acceleration of an inflation driver.

In Europe on Friday stocks moved lower as investors await key inflation data out in the region. The STOXX 600 fell 0.6%, Germany’s DAX also dropped 0.6%, the French CAC declined 0.8% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day down 0.3%.

Across the Asia region on Friday markets closed mixed as investors assessed key economic data out of Japan including Japan’s CPI rising at a slower pace in August. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.26% on Friday while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.45%, China’s CSI index added 0.74%, and South Korea’s Kospi index declined 0.32%.

Locally on Friday the ASX200 closed 0.08% lower as a sell-off in REIT and financial stocks offset a more than 3% rise in tech stocks. For the month of August though, the local market posted a 2.6% rise as investors responded to strong outlook for FY26.

Homewares retailer Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN) jumped over 10% on Friday after reporting profits rose 39% in FY25 which well exceeded market expectations while Austal (ASX:ASB) also soared over 14% amid a record order pipeline and shipbuilding agreement with the federal government.

What to watch today:

• On the commodities front this morning oil is trading 0.91% lower at US$64.01/barrel, gold is up 0.91% at US$3448.50/ounce and iron ore is up 0.1% at US$101.81/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has strengthened against the greenback to buy 65.48 US cents, 96.30 Japanese yen, 48.46 British pence and 1 New Zealand dollar and 11 cents.
• Ahead of the first trading session of the new month the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day down 0.3%.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the 12-month price target on Lovisa from $31 to $42 (ASX:LOV) and maintain a hold rating on the fashion jewellery retailer following the release of the company’s FY25 results. Despite missing on NPAT, the new financial year has started very strong for Lovisa with global comparable sales up 5.6%.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Ooh Media (ASX:OML) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 6-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $1.68 to the range of $1.84 to $1.88 according to standard principles of technical analysis.