It was turbulent week on global markets last week following the announcements of rate hikes across the major global markets which in some cases were expected, while others, like out of the RBA, came as a shock to investors.

Wall St rallied on Friday after robust jobs data indicated the economy is faring better than expected despite the Fed’s aggressive rate hike stance to date. April’s job data for the US showed jobs growth accelerated by 253,000 new jobs in April, unemployment fell to 3.4% and wage gains increased solidly regional banks felt some much-needed relief across the US on Friday on analysts’ upgrading a number of banks believed to have been oversold. PacWest Bankcorp soared almost 82% while Western Alliance jumped 49.2%. Apple shares lifted over 4.5% on Friday after the tech giant released quarterly results including sales declining just 2.5% which beat expectations. The Dow Jones industrials index added 1.7% in its biggest 1-session rise since January 6th, while the S&P500 rose 1.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 2.3%.

Over in Europe markets also closed higher on Friday as investor assess the monetary tightening cycle in the region and await key economic data out this week. German activewear giant Adidas lifted 8% on Friday after releasing better-than-expected results. Germany’s DAX added 1.44% on Friday, the French CAC rose 1.26% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 rose almost 1%.

The local market closed 0.37% higher on Friday, led by a surge in REIT stocks with the sector adding over 2%, while technology, consumer discretionary and communication services stocks offset some of the market’s gains, with these sectors ending Friday’s session in the red.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the local trading session, the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX to open 0.89% higher to start the new trading week higher on the back of Friday’s global rally. 
• On the commodities front this morning, oil has rebounded from last week’s slump to trade 4.05% higher at US$71.34/barrel, gold is down 1.7% at US$2016.28/ounce and iron ore is own 3.86% at US$99.50/tonne.
• On the economic data front today, NAB Business Confidence data for April is released today with the forecast of a rise to 1 point from -1 point in March, in a sign the market expects conditions to begin easing for local businesses.
• The Aussie dollar is buying US$0.68, 91.13 Japanese Yen, 52.67 British Pence and NZ$1.07.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has downgraded its price target on Janus Henderson (ASX:JHG) from $43.81 to $41.29 following the release of the company’s first quarter results. Bell Potter noted that while the company continues to make progress on the new strategy, short-term investment case remains relatively weak, with uncertainty on performance fees, no operating margin improvement and no obvious catalyst to spark re-rating.
• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Region Group (ASX:RGN) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 45-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $2.53 to the range of $2.65 to $2.69 according to standard principles of technical analysis.