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Last week ended on a positive note, as Aussie shares closed higher for the third straight session, closing 0.6% on Friday, and lifting its weekly gain by 3.3%.

The energy sector led the market after the oil price rose 9%, while the tech sector followed. The technology sector was led by Block (ASX:SQ2), which rose 7.2% to $168.88. Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR), Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) and Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) were among the top performers, while Megaport (ASX:MP1) fell 8%, following news that its founder and chairman, Bevan Slattery, had sold $3 million MP1 shares.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients on Friday included Lake Resources (ASX:LTR), Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) and BHP Group (ASX:BHP).

US stocks posted their best week since 2020. The Dow rose more than 270 points or 0.8%, the S&P500 rose 1.1% and the Nasdaq rose 2.05%.

What to watch today:

• Following the rally on Wall Street, the local market is set to rise 0.81% at the open this morning, going by the SPI futures.
• In commodities, oil is trading 2% higher at US$104.95 a barrel, after a 8% rally in the previous session.
• Gold weakened past US$1,940 an ounce. And seaborne iron ore is higher at US$159.59 a tonne.
• Adairs (ASX:ADH) and NRW Holdings (ASX:NWH) are set to go ex-dividend today.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintained their BUY rating on The a2Milk Company (ASX:A2M) and have lowered their price target from $7.70 to $7.15. They expect the scope for EPS to double by FY26, if the company can execute on its China offline expansion strategy, while regaining 50% of the lost sales in its English label IMF, from FY20-21. A2M last closed to $5.40, implying 32.4% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central have identified a bullish signal in AVZ Minerals (ASX:AVZ), indicating that the price may rise from the close of $0.92 to the range of $1.20 to $1.28, over 68 days.