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The local market ended the week 0.8% higher after gaining 0.34% on Friday, buoyed by a rally for consumer staples and information technology stocks. Energy stocks were sharply sold off on Friday, with the sector closing down 1.84% at the end of the session amid growing uncertainty from global recession fears and geopolitical tensions.

The winning stocks from Friday’s session were led by Megaport (ASX:MP1) jumping 7.22%, while Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) added 5.2% and Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR) rose 4.3%. On the losing end, New Hope Corporation (ASX:NHC) tumbled over 9%, Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) lost 6.64% and Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) fell over 4.8%.

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

Over in the US on Friday, stocks rallied to end the week higher boosted by a growth-sectors like technology as investor fears of the Fed continuing its aggressive rate hike stance, begin to ease on the back of favourable economic data including personal spending in the US falling by 0.2% for the second consecutive month in December.

What to watch today:

• The week ahead is a big week on the reporting season front for big tech companies like Meta, Alphabet and Apple. Following a turbulent year for beaten down technology stocks last year, investors are hoping for growth outlook this reporting season from the big tech giants, especially in the wake of mass lay-offs from the likes of Google in recent weeks.
• The Nasdaq added almost 1% on Friday while the Dow Jones rose 0.08% and the S&P500 jumped 0.25%.
• In Europe, markets closed marginally higher on Friday after US economic data came in stronger than expected on Thursday with the US economy expanding by 2.9% YoY during the fourth quarter, beating expectations and maintaining recession fears. Germany’s DAX rose 0.11%, the French CAC added 0.02% and the FTSE100 in the UK rose just 0.05%.
• Ahead of the local trading session, the SPI futures are anticipating the local market to open 0.16% higher to start the new trading week.
• On the economic data front today, there is no local economic data out today, however investors will be awaiting the release of preliminary retail sales data for December in Australia which is out tomorrow.
   
• Taking a look at commodities, oil is trading down 1.64% at US$79.68/barrel, gold is down 0.05% at US$1927.97/ounce and iron ore is trading flat at US$124.50/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar is buying, 71 US cents, 92.12 Japanese Yen, 57.76 British Pence and 1 New Zealand dollar and 10 cents.

Trading Ideas:

• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 21-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $0.82 to the range of $0.98 to $1.02 according to standard principles of technical analysis.
• Trading Central has also identified a bearish signal on Nufarm (ASX:NUF) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 7-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $5.93 to the range of $5.58 to $5.64 according to standard principles of technical analysis.