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Wall Street closed lower on Tuesday, led by the Nasdaq falling 1.04% in its first losing session in three days as Oracle shares plunged 13% on weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue and guidance. The S&P500 fell 0.57% and the Dow Jones fell in afternoon trade to close 0.05% lower after trading higher all day. Chevron shares rallied almost 2% on strength in the price of oil to offset some of the losses for the Dow Jones on Tuesday. Apple shares were also lower in afternoon trade after the tech giant unveiled a new iPhone model this afternoon in US time. Investor attention in the US is focused this week on key inflation data which will be released on Wednesday US time as it will give an indication into how the US economic inflation is faring and provide further support for the Fed to either raise or hold rates at the next FOMC meeting.

In Europe, markets closed mixed across the board on Tuesday ahead of key economic data released later this week. The STOXX600 fell 0.2%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.54%, the French CAC lost 0.35% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 rose 0.41%.

UK average earnings data released overnight showed regular pay excluding bonuses in the UK went up 7.8% YoY in the three months to July, which is the same reading as the prior quarter and the highest regular growth rate since comparable records began in 2001, in a sign inflation remains high in the region.

The local market has rallied across the first two sessions of this week amid a rise in staple and financial stocks over the two trading sessions. On Tuesday, the ASX200 rose 0.20% led by materials stocks lifting 0.9% on a 3% rise in the price of iron ore following better-than-expected economic data out of China in the form of total credit growth climbing in August 2023, marking the first month-on-month acceleration since March.

Chinese vehicle sales also rose 8.4% YoY in August, up from a 1.4% decline in July, in another sign of economic recovery in the region through consumer spend rising. The favourable economic data out of China fuelled a rally for the big iron ore miners listed locally yesterday with BHP lifting 1.21%, Rio Tinto rising 1.52% and Champion Iron adding 2.36%.

It was a big day for lithium miners yesterday with some mining giants making key strategic moves that had investors excited. Delta Lithium shares jumped almost 6.5% after Mineral Resources founder and CEO joined Delta Lithium’s board as non-executive chairman, and Mineral Resources increased its shareholding in Delta to 17.4%.

The takeover race for lithium darling Liontown Resources has heated up over recent sessions as mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has been building up her stake in the lithium miner, now boasting a 7.72% stake and may seek a seat on the board, which would give Ms Rinehart the ability to block the current Albermarle takeover offer valuing Liontown at $6.6bn.

Bellevue Gold also rallied on Tuesday after announcing ‘exceptional’ infill drilling results from drilling at Deacon Main, which will be one of the four initial main production areas. First Deacon development ore is expected in October.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the local trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are anticipating the local market to open the midweek session down 0.29%.
• On the commodities front this morning, oil continues to strengthen, trading up 1.70% at US$88.77/barrel, gold is down just shy of half a percent at US$1913/ounce and iron ore is up 3% at US$120/tonne on the back of that favourable economic data out of China reigniting demand outlook for iron ore from the region.
• AU$1.00 is buying US$0.64, 94.48 Japanese Yen, 51.28 British Pence and NZ$1.09.
• Stocks trading ex-dividend today include Medibank Private (ASX:MPL), Accent Group (ASX:AX1), Breville Group (ASX:BRG), and Brambles (ASX:BXB). If you’ve been thinking about these stocks, it might be worth considering buying in today as stocks trading ex-dividend generally trade lower on the ex-dividend date.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the rating on EROAD (ASX:ERD) from a hold to a buy whilst lowering the 12-month price target from $1.25 to $0.90 amid forecasting for the NZ$50m capital raising and the subsequent impact to NPAT that is expected by Bell Potter’s analyst. Bell Potter questions the decision to raise equity capital at such a sharp discount to the last close – especially after the EROAD board rejected the non-binding indicative offer of NZ$1.30/share from Brillian APAC, but the Bell’s analyst does recognise the much-strengthened balance sheet which now removes risk of another capital raise in the short term.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Boral (ASX:BLD) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 9-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $4.65 to the range of $4.13 to $4.23 according to standard principles of technical analysis.