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The local market ended Friday’s session 0.3% higher as a surge in tech stocks led the markets higher, while every sector aside from materials stocks also finished the day in the green.

The winning stocks from Friday’s session were led by Bega Cheese (ASX:BGA) adding over 7.5% on the back of the company’s first half results being released, while Brambles (ASX:BXB) and Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) each also added over 7.4 and 5.8% respectively. On the losing end, Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) fell almost 5% after releasing first half results and providing a mineral resource update on its Tropicana project.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients on Friday were AGL Energy (ASX:AGL), Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and Core Lithium (ASX:CXO).

For the week, the key index posted a 0.54% loss despite the Utilities sector gaining over 6% buoyed by Origin Energy jumped over 15% on the back of receiving a revised takeover offer for $8.90/share.

Over in the US, Wall St closed lower on Friday as, yet another inflation-related report came in stronger than expected. Personal Consumption Expenditure price index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation in the US, jumped to 4.7% in January which well exceeded expectations of a rise to 4.3%. The Dow Jones fell 1%, the S&P500 also lost 1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 1.7%, to wrap up Wall St’s worst week in 2023.

Over in Europe on Friday, markets also closed lower in the region as investors assessed the latest corporate earnings results in addition to economic data out of the US. Germany’s DAX fell 1.72%, the French CAC lost 1.78% and in the UK the FTSE 100 fell 0.37%.

What to watch today:

• This week Q4 GDP growth rate in Australia out on Wednesday with consensus expecting a growth rate of 0.9%, up from 0.6% growth in Q3. If the figure comes in at 0.9% it will make it the fifth straight quarter of growth in the economy, and a higher rise than Q3 which may cause a market sell-off on Wednesday.
• Preliminary Australian retail sales data for January is released in just over an hour with consensus expecting a rise of 1.2%, following a 3.9% decline in December.
• Over in the US, several Federal Reserve officials will speak this week, giving clues into the size of the next interest rate hike so investors locally and globally will be keeping an eye out for these speeches, and we may see markets move accordingly post these speeches.
• On the commodities front, oil is trading 1.23% higher at US$76.23/barrel, gold is down 0.64% at US$1810.90/ounce and iron ore is trading 1.13% lower at US$131.50/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar is buying US$0.67, 91.81 Japanese yen, 56.04 British pence and NZ$1.09.
• Ahead of the local trading session the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX to open sharply lower amid the global sell-off that ended the last trading week on a sour note.

Trading Ideas:

• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 19-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $0.61 to the range of $0.87 to $0.93 according to standard principles of technical analysis.
• Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 73-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $6.22 to the range of $4.00 to $4.40 according to standard principles of technical analysis.