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Last week the market had a jumpy start to the year. Mid-week, the market hit a 4-month high, then on Thursday the market had its worst session in 16 months. On Friday however, the ASX200 ended the week on a positive note, advancing 1.3%, with all sectors in the green. Energy, financials and utilities were up the most.

Medibank, one of the country’s largest private health insurance providers, (ASX:MPL), lead the gains, up almost 6%. This was off the back of some restrictions reintroduced in NSW, which includes the suspension of elective surgery until February, in the aim of helping the healthcare system cope with the current spike in covid cases in NSW. Medibank was followed by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (ASX:URW), which gained 5.8% on Friday and over 10% in the week, following its European shares which have performed well. Sims (ASX:SGM), NOVONIX (ASX:NVX) and Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG) were among the worst performers.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients on Friday included Nickel Mines (ASX:NIC), lithium producer Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) and Telstra (ASX:TLS)

In US equities, all three major benchmarks were lower. The S&P500 fell 0.4%, the Dow lost 0.01% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq had its worst week since February, down 0.9%. The latest economic update in the US saw a disappointing jobs report, adding fewer jobs than expected in December. And the US unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%, better than the 4.1% estimate.

The local market is set to open flat, with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.03%.

What to watch today:

• Keep watch of the prices of Woolworths (ASX:WOW) and Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (ASX:API). Woolworths (WOW) has withdrawn from its non-binding proposal to Australian Pharmaceuticals (API) after a month-long due diligence period. At the start of December, Woolworths announced it would offer API the cash price of $1.75 per share. WOW have stated that the reason for the withdrawal as unable to “validate the financial returns it requires in line with the Group’s capital allocation framework”. API fell 12.4 per cent to $1.52 a share.
• Oil is trading 0.7% lower at US$78.90 a barrel. Gold is 0.4% higher, trading just under $1,800 per ounce. And the seaborne iron ore price is trading higher at US$126 a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintain their BUY rating on Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) and have increased their price target from $1.55 to $1.70. CRN is highly leveraged to the current strength in seaborne and US domestic met coal markets and Bell Potter expect CRN to resume shareholder returns in 2022. CRN last closed at $1.30, implying 30.3% share price growth in a year.
• Trading central have identified a bullish signal in Energy Resources (ASX:ERA). This bullish signal indicates that the stock price may rise from the close of 0.37 to the range of 0.42 – 0.44, within 27 days.