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Australian shares closed flat yesterday. The real estate sector led the gains, while consumer staples declined 4%.

Medical device company, Polynovo (ASX:PNV), jumped 15%, from $1.36 to $1.57 yesterday, after a positive business update, advising that its US segment had experienced a strong start to the second quarter. Charter Hall (ASX:CHC) gained over 5%, extending its gains from the previous session. Meanwhile, Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) fell 17%, off the back of news that biotech company Novartis choose to terminate an agreement with the business. Woolworths Group (ASX:WOW) also fell after the supermarket warned that its profit growth is slowing. And Afterpay (ASX:APT) fell 4.1% to $90.83, even after its shareholders approved its acquisition by Block, formerly Square. And this deal is now awaiting approval from the Spanish Central Bank.

The best performer in the All Ords was Virtus Health (ASX:VRT) which jumped an impressive 35%. VRT is a fertility, diagnostic and day hospital, and they announced that they received a takeover bid from private equity group BGH Capital. Pointterra (ASX:3DP), gained 17.4% after announcing three new US contracts.
In New York, US investors traded cautiously amid the final US Federal Reserve policy meeting of the year. Large tech stocks also moved lower and new inflation data continued to show a sharp rise in prices. The Fed began its two-day meeting on Tuesday and today the Central Bank will release a statement with quarterly projections for the economy, inflation, and interest rates. The Dow Jones is down 0.3%, the S&P500 is down 0.75% and the Nasdaq is down 1.14%.
The Aussie share market is set to open lower this morning, with the SPI futures suggesting a 0.4% fall.

What to watch today:

• Consumer confidence figures will be released this morning for December.
• Oil is trading 1.5% lower, around US$70 a barrel, after the International Energy Agency declared the Omicron COVID-19 variant could dent the global demand recovery.
• The gold price dropped to around US$1,770 an ounce, the lowest level since the 2nd December, as investors await major central bank policy meetings, while the dollar strengthened and bond yields traded higher.
• The seaborne iron ore price is lower, at US$107 a tonne.
• Westpac (ASX:WBC) is set to hold its AGM today.
• Grange Resources (ASX:GRR) is set to go ex-dividend today.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter maintain their BUY rating on Nufarm (ASX:NUF), at a $5.40 price target. NUF last closed at $4.71, implying 14.6% share price growth in a year. NUF is also a UBS, Morgans and Citi BUY.
• Trading Central have identified a bullish signal in Panoramic Resources (ASX:PAN), which indicates that the stock price may rise from the close of $0.25 to the range of $0.28 to $0.29, within 35 days.