Week-to-date the ASX200 rebounded 1.6% and gained 0.8% on Friday. Lithium shares such as Allkem (ASX:AKE), Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) all gained, as well as Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) after announcing its brought on board Stellantis, the European automotive manufacturing giant, as its second largest shareholder. And tech stocks made strong gains on Friday. It was the best performing sector, up 6%, with family app Life360 (ASX:360) and BNPL company Zip (ASX:ZIP) leading the ASX200, up 22% and 25% respectively. The tech rally followed the jump in US tech shares the previous session. 

The most traded stock by Bell Direct clients was Lake Resources (ASX:LKE), which rebounded 15% on Friday, after falling 55% Monday to Thursday, following the departure of the company’s CEO. Lake Resources was the worst performing stock of the week, down 49% Monday to Friday. Also highly traded on Friday was Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN), Westpac (ASX:WBC), Amcor (ASX:AMC) and BHP Group (ASX:BHP). 

European stocks had their best session in over three months and US equities also made a strong comeback. All three major US benchmarks rallied. The Dow Jones added more than 800 points, up 2.7%, the S&P500 closed 3% higher at the close, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq also rallied 3% higher.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is looking optimistic following the positive session in New York. The SPI futures are suggesting a lift of 1.6% at the open this morning. 
• In commodities, oil has dropped further, now trading around US$106 a barrel with expectations of a slowdown in demand and the production shutdown in Libya, making it more difficult for OPEC to meet the production targets. Meanwhile the price of gold is higher, while iron ore is in the red. 
• Metcash (ASX:MTS) is set to report its earnings today.

Trading Ideas: 

• Bell Potter maintain their Buy rating on Nufarm (ASX:NUF) and have lowered their price target from $7.85 to $6.65. There has been a material rerating in global crop protection and domestic peer trading multiples in recent weeks, and Nufarm hasn’t been immune to the sell off, however Bell Potter continue to see the stock as better placed to navigate a normalisation in Australian crop conditions than its peers. At its current share price of $4.99, the price target implies 33% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central have identified a bullish signal in Woolworths Group (ASX:WOW), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $35.46 to the range of $37.60 to $38.10 over 23 days according to the standard principles of technical analysis.