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Wall Street closed lower on Friday as hotter-than-expected personal spending inflation data and US trade policy uncertainty dampened investor sentiment. The Dow Jones fell 1.7% on Friday, the S&P 500 lost 1.97% and the tech heavy Nasdaq ended the day down 2.7%.

On Friday U.S. core personal consumption expenditures price index came in hotter-than-expected for February with a rise of 2.8% and 0.4% MoM indicating persistent inflation across consumer spending.

Over in Europe on Friday, markets in the region closed lower as global market sentiment declines on trade and tariff uncertainty. The STOXX 600 fell 0.77%, Germany’s DAX and the French CAC each lost 1%, and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day flat.

Across Asia on Friday, Trump tariff threats continue to keep investors on edge in the region which led to a negative day across the board on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.8%, South Korea’s Kospi index ended the day down 1.9%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.65% and China’s CSI index ended the day down 0.44%.

Locally to end the week the ASX edged 0.2% higher to end a volatile trading week as Trump’s tariffs cloud economic outlook on a global scale. Despite the turbulence, the ASX200 posted a 0.6% gain for the trading week last week as a 2.55% rally for the financial sector and 2% gain among energy stocks offset weakness among the rate sensitive sectors of REIT and Tech stocks.

Packaging group Orora took the biggest hit on Friday with an 8% decline after the French Competition Authority announced a review into industry-wide anticompetitive practices, which includes into Saverglass, a European bottle maker that Orora acquired in 2023.

Paladin Energy fell a further 4.1% on Friday after the uranium producer retracted its 2025 production guidance due to unseasonably heavy rainfall in Namibia in recent times, which is where Paladin’s Langer Heinrich mine is located.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of Monday’s trading session here in Australia, the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day down 1.13%.
• On the commodities front this morning oil is trading 0.8% lower at US$69.36/barrel, gold is up 0.94% at US$3084.35/ounce and iron ore is up 0.07% at US$102.43/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has weakened against the greenback to buy 62.80 US cents, 94.27 Japanese Yen, 49.03 British Pence, and NZ$1.11.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has decreased the 12-month price target on Pro Medicus (ASX:PME) from $330/share to $280/share and maintain a buy rating on the leading medical imaging company after Bell Potter’s analyst completed a review into the timing of new contract installations and their subsequent impacts on revenue over the coming years. The downgrade in PT is due to downgrades in FY25 and FY26 EPS expectations from the analyst following the review into the contract installations.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Telstra Group (ASX:TLS) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 17-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $4.23 to the range of $4.31 to $4.35 according to standard principles of technical analysis.