Well it was another mixed session on Walk Street to end the trading week. The S&P500 continued to fall with the High Beta segment down the most, while Energy held up the most among the S&P large cap segments. On Friday the S&P500 closed 0.05% in the red, the Dow Jones 0.65% in the ted, while the Nasdaq gained 0.13%, regaining losses after coming under pressure recently. Nvidia’s earnings are also out on Wednesday, so investors will be watching out for that.

European markets were all in the red as concerns around artificial intelligence stocks continue. The German DAX down 0.69%, France’s CAC down 0.76%, FTSE100 1.11% lower, and the STOXX600 down 1.01%.

On Friday our local market closed 1.54% lower over the week and 1.36% lower for the day, hitting a 4-month low. Losses were wide spread, however tech stocks dragged down the market the most on Friday, with the sector heavily falling 4.32%. A few key factors weighing down on the maker last week included hotter than expected jobs report which came out on Thursday, which slashed expectations for rate cuts this year. We also know that key monthly data on US inflation might not be released for the month due to the shutdown US. And weak economic data was released from China as well.However it’s important to note that YTD number for the Australian and US market are still positive.

What to watch today:

• The SPI futures are suggesting the local market will drop 0.2% at the open this morning.
• Elders (ASX:ELD) shares will be on watch today when the agribusiness company releases its FY 2025 results.
• In commodities:
   
  • We’ll keep watch of energy producers today, such as Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS) or Santos (ASX:STO) as oil prices pushed high on Friday, driven by news that a Russian port has suspended oil exports falling an attack. Crude oil is up 2.4% to US$60.09 per barrel. 
  • Meanwhile, gold has dropped over 2% now at US$4083.60 an ounce, though the metal remained on track for a weekly advance of roughly 3%. The market continued to grapple with uncertainty stemming from a significant backlog of US economic data following the end of the longest government shutdown in the country’s history.
  • And iron ore has dropped slightly, to US$103.95 per tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter have a buy rating on medical device company Aroa Biosurgery (ASX:ARX) with a price target of $0.85. At the current share price of $0.72 this implies 18% share price growth in a year.
• And Trading Central have identified a bearish signal in NAB (ASX:NAB), indicating that the stock price of $41.48 nay fall to the range of $38.70 - $39.30, over 52 days according to the standard principles of technical analysis.