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All sectors were down yesterday as commodity prices weakened. Long term interest rates also continued to push higher. Weighing down on the market yesterday was NAB’s business confidence survey, which increased to a 5- month high, while business conditions saw the largest jump since June 2020. The rise in conditions were driven by a large increase in retail, finance, business and property. And labour costs hit a record high, further dampening sentiment. Meanwhile the 10-year government bond reached its highest level since 2015.

The top performer was Regis Resources (ASX:RRL), boosted by the rise in the gold price, as well as a bullish broker note from Credit Suisse. Other gold miners also advanced, including St Barbara (ASX:SBM), Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS), and Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN). Meanwhile, the healthcare sector declined 1.4% yesterday. Biotech company Imugene (ASX:IMU) was down the most. Bell Potter have a Speculative Buy rating on IMU.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients yesterday were Lake Resources (ASX:LKE), Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG), Wesfarmers (ASX:WES), South32 (ASX:S32) and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS).

Overnight, the latest US inflation reading came in at its highest level since 1981. Consumer prices in March surged 8.5% from a year ago, higher than expected, and core CPI climbed 0.3% in March. The high inflation numbers raised expectations of tighter monetary policy from the Fed, which investors fear could slow the economy. The major benchmarks closed in the red. The Dow, S&P500 and Nasdaq down all down 0.3%.

What to watch today:

• Following US equities, the SPI futures are suggesting the local market will slightly fall 0.09% at the open this morning.
• In commodities, the oil price has jumped almost 8%, following relief about demand in China after Shanghai eased some virus restrictions.
• Gold is also trading in the green, following the US inflation reading. Meanwhile seaborne iron ore is trading slightly lower.
• In economic data, consumer confidence data will be released today by Westpac at 10:30am AEST.
• Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU) will hold its AGM today.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter have maintained its Buy rating on capital market company, Pendal Group (ASX:PDL) but have reduced its price target from $7.48 to $6.80. This comes as the Pendal board has decided the proposal from Perpetual (PPT) is not in the best interests of shareholders, as it significantly undervalues the current and future value of the business. Now PDL closed 0.19% lower yesterday to $5.29, which implies about 29% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central has a bearish signal on Santos (ASX:STO) indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $8.00 to the range of $6.70 – $6.90 in the next 26 days according to standard principals of technical analysis.