Morning Bell 21 May

Wall St closed mixed overnight despite strong gains from some major tech companies. The Dow Jones fell 0.49%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.65% and the S&P 500 ended the trading session 0.09% higher.

In terms of US stocks, Nvidia rose 2% as investors await for their first quarter results, due to be released on Wednesday afternoon.

Over in Europe, markets closed in the green overnight after a strong run of gains. The STOXX600 closed 0.2% higher with most of the sectors ending the trading session up with industrial stocks gaining 0.96% whilst autos fell 0.77%. Germany’s DAX and the French CAC both rallied 0.35% and over in the UK the FTSE100 rose 0.05% by market close.

Locally yesterday the ASX200 ended Monday’s trading session 0.63% in the green, with the majority of sectors finishing positive. Gains were led by the energy and materials sectors which rose 2.23% and 1.93% respectively. This was offset by the health sector which fell 0.86% by the closing bell yesterday.

In terms of local stocks yesterday, Star Entertainment group soared 22% after confirming it has received takeover offers from Hard Rock Hotels, and Australian jewellery house Michael Hill plunged almost 20% after warning of a decline in sales for FY24 compared to the prior year.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.11% by market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
   
  • Gold is trading half a percent higher at 2426 US dollars and 32 cents an ounce after hitting all-time highs yesterday as demand for the precious metal continues to soar, amid increased optimism for global rate cuts later this year which has impacted the USD and bond yields. This sparked a rally for local gold miners yesterday including Spartan Resources, Bellevue Gold, Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining. 
  • Oil is trading 1.5% lower at 78 US dollars and 85 cents a barrel and iron ore is trading 0.15% higher at 117 US dollars and 2 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on PointsBet Holdings (ASX:PBH) and has an unchanged 12-month price target of $0.63. The buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter as PointsBet upgraded its FY24 normalised EBITDA guidance from a loss of $9-$14 million to $4-$6 million after a continued strong year-to-date trading in H2 FY24 and increased operational efficiency and productivity. This upgrade result reflects a significant improvement on the FY23 normalised EBITDA, hence the buy rating is maintained.