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The Australian market closed 0.66% higher on Friday as investor confidence extended into the final trading session of the week, after RBA Governor Philip Lowe gave dovish signs of the way forward in terms of interest rate hikes.

The winning stock on Friday was Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) after the leading mining services company said it regularly considers ‘strategic options’ for its lithium segment in an indication the company may be looking to spin-off its lithium division. De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG) and Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) also led the gains on Friday, each adding almost 12% and 8% respectively.

On the losing front, investors sharply sold-off Life360 (ASX:360) despite no price sensitive news released by the location tracking company. Imugene (ASX:IMU) also fell more than 4.2% on Friday possibly after some investors took profits from its prior session surge after the company announced it has dosed the first patient in its Phase 2 trial for its leading drug candidate HER-Vaxx.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients last week were Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN), Myer Holdings (ASX:MYR) and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS).

Over in the US, stocks rallied to end the week with strong gains. The Dow Jones added 1.2%, the S&P500 jumped 1.5% and the Nasdaq surged 2.11% on Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was the winning index for the week, adding more than 4.1%. Investors bought back into shares following the end of the recent reporting season that showed companies are handling inflation and slowing growth well. Tesla shares rallied 3.6% on Friday after the EV giant said it is looking into constructing a lithium hydroxide refining facility that can help support its EV battery production. The rally carried over to Europe with the FTSE gaining 1.23%, the DAX adding 1.43% and the CAC lifting 1.41%.

What to watch today:

• The futures are expecting the market to open 1.15% higher to extend the gains from last week into the new trading week.
• On the commodities front:
  • Oil has rebounded from 8-month lows that ended last week to trade 3.21% higher at around US$86.22 a barrel.
  • Gold is up half a percent to US$1716 an ounce.
  • Iron ore is up just under 3%.
  • Natural gas is trading up almost 1.5%.
• Economic news wise, investors will gain an insight into consumer and business confidence, with Westpac Consumer Confidence data for September out tomorrow as well as NAB Business Confidence data for August being released tomorrow. Overseas, US inflation rate data for August is also out later on Tuesday night which will give an insight into just how expensive it was to live in the US in August.

Trading Ideas:

• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on data software company Nuix (ASX:NXL) after identifying a pattern forming over an 87-day period, which is the same amount of time the share price is expected to rise from the close of $0.86 to the range of $1.00-$1.06 according to standard principles of technical analysis.
• Bell Potter has upgraded its price target on Aroa Biosurgery (ASX:ARX) from $1.35 to $1.40 and maintains its Speculative Buy rating on the stock, driven by upgrades in TELA Bio Revenues which is ARX’s commercial partner.