BPO TV

Well, it was a positive session on Wall Street, with all three major benchmarks closing in the green on Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq surged more than 1%, to an all-time high, surpassing its 2021 record as investors look to tech stocks amid the AI boom. Meanwhile the Dow Jones gained 0.23% and the S&P500 gained 0.8%.

Locally, the ASX200 ended the week with a 1.3% gain, with the tech sector leading the market, up 8% Monday to Friday.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to rise 0.14% at the open this morning.
• In commodities,
  • The oil price is up more than 2%, at US$79 per barrel, the highest in four months, driven by expectations that OPEC+ will extend supply cuts. Investors seem optimistic for the upcoming OPEC meeting in March.
  • The gold price hit a two-month high as the US dollar weakens, as well as lower Treasury yields and hopes of rate cuts.
  • While iron ore declined 0.8% to US$117.50 per tonne, the lowest since October, amid the downturn in China’s property market.
• And there are around a dozen companies going ex-dividend today, including Propel Funeral Partners (ASX:PFP), REA Group (ASX:REA), Steadfast Group (ASX:SDF) and Netwealth Group (ASX:NWL). This often sees share prices fall, as investors take their profits.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU). The company develop drugs targeting disorders of the Central Nervous System. Bell Potters 12-month price target remains unchanged at $27, following the company’s Q4 update. NEU’s current share price if $19.36, so this implies 39.5% share price growth in the year.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal in Deterra Royalties (ASX:DRR), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $5.06, to the range of $5.65 to $5.80 over 33 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.