The local market had a positive start to the week, but volumes were thin. Whether the inverted US yield curve foretells a recession is still topic du jour. It was an M&A start to this Monday with Perpetual bidding $2.4 billion for Pendal, the latter share price trading over 23% at one stage, ending the day 18% higher. Otherwise, lithium stocks picked up where Friday left off. Iluka Resources closed up nearly 6% after receiving government funding to build a rare earths refinery. After a black hole of forward guidance, the market is divided as to whether the RBA board will take a step closer to meeting aggressive market pricing at to tomorrow's meeting. Blue chips were flat, but mid and small caps powered ahead, closing up 1.3%. The broader S&P/ASX200 closed up 20 points, or 0.3%.

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