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Wall Street rose for a fourth straight week last week across the three key indices despite a mixed session on Friday. The Dow Jones rose 0.33%, and the S&P500 added 0.06%, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.11%. Chip maker Nvidia weighed on the Nasdaq on Friday as shares in the company fell 1.7% after Reuters reported Nvidia told its Chinese clients that it will delay a new artificial intelligence chip designed to comply with U.S. export restrictions, until next year. Declining bond yields are a driving factor behind the four week Wall Street rally as investors come to terms with the idea that the equity market in the US can handle interest rates between 4-5%.

Black Friday and cyber Monday sales periods kicked off over the weekend in the US which sent shares in Walmart, Amazon and target higher on Friday.

Over in Europe, markets in the region also closed higher on Friday as fresh economic data in the region boosted investor sentiment that inflation is continuing to cool.  Final German GDP figures for Q3 released on Friday confirmed contraction of 0.1% which is down 0.8% on the PCP. The STOXX600 rose 0.4% higher on Friday while Germany’s DAX added 0.22%, the French CAC rose 0.2% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day up 0.06%.

Locally on Friday, the ASX200 rose 0.17%, driven by the utilities and energy sectors adding 1.55% and 1.27% respectively. Trading was lacklustre on Friday as Wall Street was closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving day holiday. The energy sector rally was boosted on Friday by a rebound in the price of oil, while tech stocks weighed on the key index.

In company news, Select Harvest tanked 10.5% after the agricultural company reported net losses deepened to $115m in FY23 from $4.8m in FY22 which led to the company’s final dividend being scrapped. Whitehaven Coal on the other hand rose 3.4% after the company’s $1bn  Winchester South coking coal mine was given a recommendation to proceed from the Queensland government’s Coordinator General.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the local trading session here in Australia, the SPI futures are expecting the local market to open the new trading week up 0.21%.
• On the commodities front this morning, oil has retreated again to trade 1.22% lower at US$76.16/barrel, gold is up half a percent at US$2001.60/ounce, iron ore is flat at US$136/tonne and uranium is up 8.45% at US$80.25/pound.
• AU$1.00 is buying US$0.66, 98.32 Japanese Yen, 52.23 British Pence and NZ$1.08.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained a buy rating on Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CUV) and a 12-month price target of $24 following the release of an update out of the pharmaceutical company’s competitor. Clinuvel currently has a monopoly position over the market for the treatment of EPP through the distribution of the drug Scenesse which is currently the only globally approved treatment for EPP. The most advanced competitor is Mitsubishi Tanabe which has recently initiated a Phase 3 trial which pushes back the potential approval until CY27 at the earliest, which indicates Clinuvel has monopoly over the market for at least another 3-4 years.
• And Bell Potter has increased the rating on Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) from a speculative hold to a speculative buy rating and maintain a $5.53/share 12-month price target on the uranium miner as the analyst sees an opportunity to buy the dip given the recent pullback in the share price and some key tailwinds mounting in the uranium market. Upcoming catalysts for Boss Energy include the signing of an offtake agreement ahead of first production in December or January, commencement of production with first drummed material in late January to early February 2024, and further momentum in uranium markets as more countries continue including nuclear power as a key part of their green energy transition strategies.