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Wall Street closed mixed on Friday amid a spike in the price of oil and renewed inflation fears which led to the Dow Jones rising 0.12% while the S&P500 fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq lost 1.23%. For the week, the S&P500 added 0.45%, and the Dow Jones rose 0.79%, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.18% over the four trading days.

Escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East caused the price of oil to jump 6%, the most in one session since April.

Dollar General shares popped 8.8% on Friday after the discount retailer announced former CEO Todd Vasos would return to lead the company while chipmaker and AI shares including Adobe and Nvidia shares rallied to end the week higher. The release of key consumer sentiment data also weighed on Wall St on Friday with the reading showing investor sentiment plunged in October while inflation fears spiked. Third quarter earnings are also in focus over the next week as investors will assess how corporations are faring the high interest rate environment. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo kicked off the earnings period with stronger-than-expected profit and revenue for the third quarter.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower on Friday amid global investor sentiment sliding especially on the back of rising geopolitical tensions between Hamas and Israel. The STOXX600 fell 1% weighed down by tech stocks dropping 2.5%. Germany’s DAX shed 1.55% on Friday, the French CAC fell 1.42%, and in the UK, the FTSE100 lost 0.6%.

Locally on Friday, the ASX200 fell just over half a percent, weighed down by a sell-off in technology and real estate stocks, which are both sectors impacted by higher interest rates which is the general consensus at the moment among investors through the sentiment of higher for longer. Chalice Mining fell a further 8.3% on Friday while Weebit Nano and Core Lithium fell over 6% each. Bega Cheese rallied over 3% though after Bell Potter upgraded the dairy maker to a buy rating with a price target of $3.35/share.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the new trading session here in Australia, the SPI futures are expecting the local market to open the new trading session down 0.42% to start the new trading week lower.
• On the commodities front this morning oil is up 5.99% at US$87.87/barrel, gold is up 3.42% at US$1932.50/ounce and iron ore is up 1.74% at US$117/tonne.
• AU$1.00 is buying US$0.63, 94.13 Japanese Yen, 52.06 British Pence and NZ$1.06.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the 12-month price target on Coventry Group (ASX:CYG) from $1.35 to $1.40 and maintain a buy rating on the company following the release of the multi-disciplinary industrial supply and services company’s 1QFY24 trading update indicating Coventry is on track for a very strong FY24. Group sales for the first quarter were up mid-single digits to $94.6m while unaudited pre-AASB-16 EBITDA came in at $5.4m, up 11% on the PCP.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Ingenia Communities Group (ASX:INA) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 59-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $3.96 to the range of $3.45 to $3.55 according to standard principles of technical analysis.