Morning Bell 12 March

Wall St closed lower overnight as the Dow Jones loses more than 450 points. The S&P 500 dropped 0.75%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.18% and the Dow Jones fell by over 1%.

The S&P 500 was in the green at one point of the trading session until Donald Trump declared that Canadian steel and aluminum duties would double from 25% to 50%.

Over in Europe, markets followed the US and closed lower as trade tensions between the US and Canada escalate. The STOXX600 fell by 1.7%, led by autos which fell by 2.13%.  Germany’s DAX closed 1.29% lower, the French CAC lost 1.31% down and over in the UK, the FTSE100 ended Tuesday’s trading session 1.21% in the red.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 fell by 0.91% with the majority of sectors closing in the red. Losses were led by the information technology and industrial sectors which fell by 3.95% and 1.98% respectively. This was offset by the utilities sector which gained 1.37% by the closing bell.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower with the SPI futures predicting a fall of 0.95% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 0.89% higher at 66 US dollars and 62 cents, gold is trading 1.09% higher at 2915 US dollars an ounce and iron ore is trading 0.3% lower at 100 US dollars and 99 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Regal Partners (ASX:RPL) and has a 12-month price target of $5. With a current share price of $2.83, this indicates a share price growth of 76.7%, hence the buy rating is maintained.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on AGL Energy (ASX:AGL), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $10.13 to the range of $12.20-$12.60, on a pattern formed over 19 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.