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What a week it was on markets last week as Trump tariffs and global trade war concerns spread fear throughout global markets leading to a mass sell off in equities and the price of safe-haven gold topping US$3000/ounce for the first time ever.

Wall Street reversed some of last week’s losses to close higher across the key indices on Friday as news out of the Whitehouse around tariffs eased on Friday which prompted investors to reconsider buying into equities following days of sharp selloffs. The Dow Jones rose 1.65% on Friday, the S&P500 added 2.13% and the Nasdaq ended the day up 2.61%. The see-saw of tariffs being on, and off Trump’s policy front has spooked markets over the last week as investors shift portfolios into safe-haven assets to manage the current high volatility among equities and global markets.

In Europe on Friday markets closed higher after German lawmakers came closer to agreeing on reforming the country’s debt-brake rule. The STOXX 600 rose 1.14%, Germany’s DAX climbed 1.65%, the French CAC added 1.05%, and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day up 1.13%.

Across the APAC region last week, markets mostly rose on Friday despite Wall Street’s tumble on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.72%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.12%, China’s CSI index gained 2.43% but South Korea’s Kospi Index ended the day down 0.28%.

Locally on Friday the ASX200 recovered some ground with a 0.52% rise at the closing bell, but the key index posted a 2% fall for the week last week. Rate sensitive sectors of tech and consumer discretionary took the biggest hits last week as consumers fear inflation in the U.S. and locally can rebound as a result of Trump’s tariffs.

What to watch locally today:

• Ahead of Monday’s trading session on the ASX, the SPI futures are anticipating the local market will open the new trading week up 1.09% tracking Wall Street’s rise on Friday.
• On the commodities front this morning oil is up 0.95% at US$67.18/barrel, gold is up 2.47% at US$2983/ounce and iron ore is up 0.7% at US$102.85/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has slightly strengthened to buy US$0.63, 94.10 Japanese Yen, 48.64 British Pence and NZ$1.10.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has initiated coverage of Seek (ASX:SEK) with a buy rating and a 12-month price target of $27.00 with the view that the company’s market leading portfolio is centralised for scaling. Seek is the largest marketplace in Australia for job advertisements and the analyst can see potential ad volumes increasing as macro tailwinds are driven by the RBA’s cutting cycle.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on South32 (ASX:S32) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 70-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $3.53 to the range of $2.96 to $3.06 according to standard principles of technical analysis.