BPO TV

Wall St closed mixed overnight on the first trading day of a holiday shortened trading week. The Dow Jones fell over half a percent, the S&P500 closed 0.02% higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended Tuesdays trading session up 0.59%, boosted by Nvidia’s post-results momentum.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower in the region on Tuesday ahead of the release of key inflation data out later this week. The STOXX600 fell 0.6% as travel and leisure stocks weighed on the index, while Germany’s DAX fell 0.52%, the French CAC dropped 0.92%, and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day down 0.76%.

The local market’s short-lived rally ended on Tuesday with the key index closing the session down 0.28%, taking no lead from Wall Street being closed on Monday in addition to the banks, retail stocks and the healthcare sector offsetting gains among the materials stocks on Tuesday. Most sectors ended the trading session in the red with losses led by the industrial and utilities sectors which fell 1% and 0.9% respectively.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.59% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 1.09% higher at US$80.23/barrel following expectations that OPEC+ would extend voluntary output cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day into the second half of the year.
  • Gold is trading 0.37% higher to US$2361/ounce and iron ore is trading 0.11% higher at US$117.66/tonne.

Trading Idea:

• Bell Potter has a buy rating on Paragon Care (ASX:PGC) and has increased its 12-month price target to $0.45. The buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter with a shareholder meeting to approve the merger of Paragon Care and CH2 Holdings to occur on June 3rd. The merger is transformative to the company and is expected to create a leading healthcare wholesaler, distributor and manufacturer operating across healthcare markets in the Asia Pacific region. The Paragon directors unanimously recommend that Paragon shareholders vote in favour of the merger and its Bell Potters view that it is certain to proceed.