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The major US indices closed lower on Friday and today, the futures are suggesting that the Aussie market will follow Wall Street and fall 0.4%.

What to watch today:

• The focus will be on travel and tourism stocks as the QLD and NSW border reopens.
• Monash Uni and CSIRO have developed a battery that can allow electric buses and trucks to travel from Melbourne to Sydney without recharging. The duo also said the innovation could be ready in a decade and also work in agricultural drones – with lithium batteries needing to be light weight. So keep an eye on lithium majors like Orocobre (ASX:ORE), Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and small cap stocks like Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) & Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL).
• The oil price rebounded 2% and rose 0.5% on the week.
• The nickel price hit a fresh 7-year high and gold went the other way, and fell below US$1,800 as the safe haven USD rose .
• The iron ore price fell again, losing 0.5% to US$133 a tonne – getting very close to where some analysts think the iron ore price will bottom at US$115 before slowly rebounding.
• Companies going ex-div today include: HUB24 (ASX:HUB), Healius (ASX:HLS), Chorus (ASX:CNU).
• Economic news this week includes business confidence on Tuesday, consumer confidence on Wednesday and employment data on Thursday.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter put out a banking note this morning reiterating BUY ratings for three of the big banks, calling CBA, ANZ and NAB a BUY, while WBC is a HOLD.
• Bell Potter maintained S2 Resources (ASX:S2R) as a Speculative BUY stock with $0.18 target, implying 84% share price growth in a year.
• Bullish charting signals have been identified in archTIS (ASX:AR9), Mach7 Technologies (ASX:M7T), and Viva Leisure (ASX:VVA), according to Trading Central