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Wall St shook off the mixed closed to last week with a record finish on Monday as the S&P500 rose 0.28% to a record high 5,718.57 points while the Dow Jones added 0.15% to another record 42,124.65 and the Nasdaq ended the day up 0.14%. Investors overlooked the latest US economic data in the form of a 15-month low for manufacturing PMI activity in the US for August to welcome the Fed’s rate cut outlook. Investors will now look forward to the latest weekly jobless claims data out later this week.

European markets also started the week in positive territory investors assessed fresh business activity data out in the region. The STOXX600 rose 0.4%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.68%, the French CAC added 0.1% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day up 0.36%.

Across the Asia region on Monday in mostly positive territory as investors assessed monetary policy decisions out of China and Japan last week with both central banks maintaining rates steady for the next period. China’s CSI index rose 0.37%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2%, The Taiwan 

Weighted Index added 0.57% and Japan’s Nikkei was closed for a holiday.

Locally to start the week, the ASX200 fell 0.7% at the closing bell on Monday to snap a 7-day winning streak as a sharp sell off in the big supermarkets weighed on the consumer staples sector while real estate and discretionary stocks also fell 1.6% and 1.32% respectively.
 Woolworths and Coles, the big supermarket giants, fell 3.4% and 3.3% respectively on Monday after the ACCC said the companies were misleading shoppers with claims they were dropping prices when they were actually increasing them. Both supermarket giants could be facing tens of millions of dollars in penalties.

Iron ore miners were once again under pressure yesterday amid a decline in the price of the key commodity on the back of renewed concerns about demand out of China as the world’s second largest economy continues its sluggish post pandemic recovery.

Boss Energy soared over 8% on Monday in the wake of a megadeal by Microsoft to restore life to a major US nuclear plant. The deal will see Microsoft buy 100% of its power for 20-years, which drove the price of uranium and subsequently, Boss Energy on Monday as Boss Energy’s 30% stake in the 

Alta Mesa uranium mine in south Texas now becomes more valuable in the global ramp up of nuclear power.

All eyes today will be on the RBA as the latest rate decision will be announced this afternoon with the market expecting Australia’s central bank to maintain the current cash rate at 4.35%.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of Tuesday’s trading session locally the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX to open the new trading day down 0.11% taking no lead from Wall Street’s rally overnight.
• On the commodities front this morning oil is trading almost half a % lower at US$70.67/barrel, gold is up 0.23% at US$2627.6/ounce and iron ore is down 0.11% at US$91.93/tonne.
• AU$1.00 is buying US$0.68, 98.23 Japanese Yen, 51.27 British Pence and NZ$1.09.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the rating on Imdex (ASX:IMD) from a sell to a hold and raised the 12-month price target on the company from $1.90 to $2.05 after the analyst reviewed the investment thesis behind the company to adopt a balanced near-term view on exploration activity and demand growth for the company’s products which are end-to-end mining product technology solutions. With anticipated demand for Imdex products set to grow over the next 6-9 months.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Monadelphous Group (ASX:MND) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 46-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $12.33 to the range of $10.40 to $10.80 according to standard principles of technical analysis.