Yesterday, the Aussie share market started the new trading week in the green, with a very small gain of 0.1%. Leading the market was the energy, materials, and utilities sectors, all up over 1.4%. Weighing on the market however was the consumer discretionary, real estate and industrials sectors, which were all down more than 1%. 

Looking at the ASX200 leaderboard, OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL) jumped 35.3% following BHP’s takeover bid, which OZL rejected as its board believes the offer significantly undervalues the company. Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) continues to rise, up nearly 16% yesterday, despite no news out from the company. Supportive factors include that the price of lithium still trades near record highs. The biggest decliners yesterday included Suncorp (ASX:SUN), Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG) and Credit Corp Group (ASX:CCP). 

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients yesterday included Lake Resources (ASX:LKE), Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA), Zip Co (ASX:ZIP), as well as OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL).

Moving to the US, the market was mixed. The Dow Jones managed to post a small gain of 0.09%, while the S&P500 and Nasdaq were both down around 0.1%. Putting pressure on the market was  tech company, Nvidia, which announced weaker-than-expected revenue for the second quarter, which consequently impacted semiconductor stocks. And some clean energy shares lifted after the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes billions of dollars aimed at addressing climate change. 

What to watch today:

• Our local market is expected to open lower, down 0.12%, in line with the mixed US session.
• In economic news, both the NAB business confidence for July and the Westpac consumer confidence for August will be released today.
• In company reports, today we’ll hear from Megaport (ASX:MP1), Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN), News Corp (ASX:NWS) and REA Group (ASX:REA). Bell Potter forecasts REA’s NPAT to come in at $404 million, while consensus is a bit more modest at $411.2m, and consensus expects CRN’s NPAT to come in at $430m. Keep watch of these stocks today to see if their results are in line with expectations. Keep watch of NAB today as the company will be releasing a third quarter trading update. 
• Moving to commodities, oil prices lifted after positive economic data was released out of China. The gold price also gained following a pullback in the US dollar and US Treasury Yields, while the spot iron ore price traded slightly lower at US$112 a tonne. 

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter have downgraded its rating on OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL) from a Buy to a Hold. Bell Potter views BHP’s proposal to takeover OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL) as offering competitive value but likely to be improved. However, the risk-adjusted potential upside is insufficient for Bell Potter to maintain a Buy rating, therefore the downgrade to a Hold, with a strategy to see through to the completion of an all-cash acquisition of OZL at the current offer price or higher. Bell Potter has made no changes to their earnings forecasts and have increased their price target by 2% to match the current offer price of $25.00 per share. 
• Trading Central has a bearish signal on Data3 (ASX:DTL) indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $6.21 to the range of $4.40 - $4.70 in the next 19 days according to standard principals of technical analysis.