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Wall street was closed on Monday for the President’s Day holiday.

Over in Europe on Monday markets closed higher as several defence stocks soared amid renewed spend in the defence space in the region. The STOXX 600 rose 0.54% to a fresh record high, while Germany’s DAX added 1.26%, the French CAC climbed 0.13%, and, in the UK, the FTSE 100 ended the day up 0.41%.

Across the Asia region on Monday, markets closed mostly higher as investors digested Japan’s latest GDP reading which came in at a Q4 expansion of 2.8%, exceeding market estimates of 1% growth. Japan’s Nikkei added 0.06% on Monday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.02%, China’s CSI index rose 0.21% and South Korea’s Kospi index ended the day up 0.75%.

The local market was sold off yesterday, ending the day down 0.2% as the banks weighed on market gains after Westpac posted a 9% drop in net profit for Q1, while investors remain cautious ahead of the RBA’s first meeting for 2025 starting today. The market is factoring in a 90% chance of a rate cut today, however, economic data shows inflation and key drivers of inflation remain sticky so the announcement out of the RBA will be highly anticipated this afternoon, in addition to the outlook for the rate journey.

Gold miners saw significant sell-offs after the precious metal experienced its largest single-day drop on Friday. Northern Star Resources dropped 3.5%, Bellevue Gold lost 3.16% and Evolution Mining ended the day down 2.05%.
On the other hand, payment provider Findi saw a strong rally, up 7.3%. This surge came after the company narrowed its earnings forecast for fiscal 2025, now expecting earnings before tax to fall between $30 million and $32 million, compared to the earlier range of $30 million to $35 million.

Better-than-expected earnings boosted a2 Milk by 19.7% on Monday with the company reporting a 10.1% rise in revenue, NPAT up 7.6% to NZ$91.7m and A2M also declared an inaugural dividend of 8.5 NZ cps.
A sharp rise in US steel prices since President Trump commenced his term in office, boosted BlueScope Steel’s outlook in results out yesterday. Shares in Australia’s largest steelmaker rose almost 13% on Monday despite the company reporting a 57% slide in underlying EBIT and NPAT down 59%.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of Tuesday’s trading session the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day up 0.25%.
• On the commodities front this morning, oil is trading 0.91% higher at US$71.38/barrel, gold is up 0.78% at US$2903/ounce and iron ore is up 0.06% at US$106.83/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has further strengthened overnight to buy US$0.63, 96.30 Japanese Yen, 50.52 British Pence and NZ$1.11.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the 12-month price target on Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) from $5.15 to $5.75 and maintain a speculative buy rating on the platinum, nickel, copper and cobalt miner following metallurgical test work breakthrough at the company’s 100%-owned Gonneville Project demonstrating two saleable, smelter grade flotation concentrated can be produced across the entire Gonneville Sulphide resource.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure (ASX:DBI) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 25-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $3.65 to the range of $3.96 to $4.04 according to standard principles of technical analysis.