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Over in the US on Monday afternoon trade, Wall St has pulled back from record territory as investors look ahead to key inflation data out later this week in the US. The Nasdaq and S&P500 retreated from record highs to end the day down 0.61% and 0.61% respectively, while the Dow Jones ended the day down 0.54%. Nvidia shares lost 2.6% on Monday following a Chinese regulator announcing it is investigating the AI semiconductor giant for potentially violating the country’s antimonopoly law.

In Europe overnight, markets mostly extended the positive run from last week into the new trading week as investors assessed further stimulus talks out of China, a key trading area for Europe. The STOXX 600 rose for an eighth straight session to close 0.14% higher, Germany’s DAX fell 0.19%, the French CAC rose 0.72% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day up 0.52%. Chinese leaders on Monday promised more proactive fiscal measures and moderately looser monetary policy for next year.

Across the Asia region on Monday, markets closed mixed amid revised economic growth data out of Japan and on the release of China’s November inflation data. Japan’s Q3 GDP growth was revised up from 0.2% to 0.3% on a QoQ basis which topped analysts’ estimates and boosted Japan’s Nikkei to a 0.1% rise on Monday. China’s CPI or inflation data on the other hand was also released on Monday and had the opposite response from investors as inflation in the region rose 0.2% YoY in November which missed expectations and was a decrease from the 0.3% rise in October indicating further sluggish recovery in the region, this led to China’s CSI index falling 0.6% on Monday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also fell 0.6% on Monday and South Korea’s Kospi Index ended the day down over 2% on political instability.

The local market had a lacklustre start to the week however recovered from early losses on Monday to end the day with a rise of just 0.03%. Consumer discretionary stocks boosted the market to a positive close yesterday with a rise of 0.64% while the energy sector fell 1.05% tracking the weaker price of oil over recent weeks.

Aussie telco provider Superloop rallied 1.8% on Monday after announcing it has entered a deal to acquire Optus’ subsidiary brand Uecomm for $17.5bn which will add over 2000km of high-capacity fibre assets to Superloop’s brand.

Platinum asset management tumbled 14.35% on Monday after its takeover talks with Regal Partners ended with no deal reached. This was on top of Platinum also announcing its Funds Under Management took a major hit in November.
And capital raisings hit a few companies share prices yesterday with Calix ending the day down 12.22% after announcing the completion of an institutional placement that raised $20m at 75cps, while Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals tumbled 7.76% after raising $16m at 40cps, which is over a 30% discount to the previous closing price of the share.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of Tuesday’s session on the ASX the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day up just 0.04%.
• On the commodities front this morning, oil is trading 1.95% higher at US$68.51/barrel, gold is up 1.25% at US$2666.13/ounce, and iron ore is down 2.05% at US$104.11/tonne.
• The Aussie Dollar has further weakened overnight to buy US$0.64, 97.70 Japanese Yen, 50.19 British Pence and NZ$1.10.
• We may also see investors react to the RBA’s rate decision and commentary around the last rate decision for 2024 this afternoon where it is widely expected Australia’s central bank will hold the cash rate at the current level of 4.35%.

 Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has downgraded the rating on Platinum Asset Management (ASX:PTM) from a hold to a sell and have significantly dropped the price target on the company from $1.21 to 74cps following funds under management dropping over 10% in November to $10.957bn and on the back of merger talks ending with Regal Partners.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on ARB Corp (ASX:ARB) following the formation of a patter over a period of 114 days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $40.06 to the range of $31.50 to $33.25 according to standard principles of technical analysis.