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The Australian market posted a 2.02% loss on the first trading day of the new month, closing at its lowest level since late July. Every sector aside from consumer staples stocks ended the day in negative territory as the broad market sell-off continued locally in response Wall Street suffering through its worst August since 2015.

Economic data on the housing front released today also weighed on investor sentiment, with home loans issued for July falling 7% to $19.05 billion, which well exceeded the market expectation of a 3% fall. Building CaPex and private CaPex also fell for the second quarter in data out today, down 2.5% and 0.3% respectively.

On the stocks front, Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) was one of the winning stocks today despite the market sell-off amid a rally for consumer staples stocks today. The a2 Milk Company (ASX:A2M) also jumped more than 2% today after Bell Potter upgraded the premium dairy company’s shares to a buy rating with a price target of $6.35 per share on the belief that its FY22 results came in ahead of expectations and that strong earnings growth can be seen to continue through to FY26.

On the losing front, Pointsbet Holdings (ASX:PBH) continued to be sold-off sharply today with the share price falling more than 15% during the session as investors continue punishing the online sports betting company for its FY22 results released yesterday.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients today were Nickel Industries (ASX:NIC), BHP Group (ASX:BHP), and the BetaShares Australian Strong Bear Hedge Fund (ASX:BBOZ).

As for what to watch overnight, initial jobless claims in the US for last week will be released, with the market expecting an increase to 246,000.