Wall Street rallied on Friday despite jobs data soaring past expectations to provide further support of a soft landing in the U.S. as opposed to a recession. The Dow Jones rose 0.87% on Friday while the S&P500 added 1.18%, and the Nasdaq rose 1.6%. The US economy added 366,000 jobs in September, more than double economists’ expectations of 170,000 jobs being added. Wages rose less than expected in September though which is a positive sign for inflation. Yields initially rose after the release of the jobs report however retreated in afternoon trade with the 10-year treasury yield settling at 4.78% on Friday. The US unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8% which was slightly higher than economists had forecast.

Over in Europe, markets rallied on Friday following the release of robust jobs data in the U.S. The STOXX600 rose 0.8%, Germany’s DAX rose 1.06%, the French CAC added 0.88% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 rose 0.58%. Shares in electronic giant Philips fell 7% on Friday after the US FDA criticised the Dutch health tech company’s handling of a major product recall, with the FDA claiming they do not believe ‘testing and analysis Philips has shares to date are adequate to fully evaluate the risks posed to users from the recalled devices’.

Locally on Friday, the ASX200 rose 0.41% to shake off some of the week’s heavy losses driven by a strong rally for financial and materials stocks while energy stocks came under pressure amid the falling price of oil.

Magellan Financial tanked 18.5% after the asset manager reported a further $4bn drop in funds under management for September to $35bn.

What to watch today: 

• Ahead of the local trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are expecting the ASX to open 0.83% higher on the back of Wall Street’s rally on Friday.
• On the commodities front this morning, oil has recovered to trade 0.58% higher at US$82.79/barrel, gold is up 0.68% at US$1832/ounce and iron ore is flat at US$119.50/tonne.
• AU$1.00 is buying US$0.64, 94.87 Japanese Yen, 52 British Pence and NZ$1.07.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the price target on Polynovo (ASX:PNV) from $2 to $2.05 and maintain a buy rating on the medical device company following the release of a trading update outlining total revenue for July/August of $14.9m with US sales accounting for $10.6m while key new jurisdictions for growth in FY24 include Asia, Canada and Europe. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will also provide an additional US$10m in funding for the pivotal trial program of Polynovo’s NovoSorb.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 30-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $113.19 to the range of $125-$128 according to standard principles of technical analysis.

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