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We wanted to let you know that this week, we’ve donated $10,000 to the Australian Red Cross QLD and NSW Floods Appeal to provide vital humanitarian support to the people and communities affected by the 2022 floods. We're committed to supporting our community through this difficult time and are thinking of those Australians who have suffered catastrophic losses, knowing the journey to rebuild is only beginning for many. To help support the cause, you can donate here: https://www.redcross.org.au/floodsappeal/   

Now let’s take a brief look at what happened yesterday. The local market declined 0.8%, weighed down by both the energy and materials sectors, as investors feared that higher energy prices due to Russia’s war in Ukraine would drive inflation higher and hurt the global economy.

Gold miner, St Barbara (ASX:SBM) was the best performer, lifting nearly 13%, supported by the rising gold price, but also due to claims that it could be a takeover target. And healthcare stocks like Imugene (ASX:IMU), Mesoblast (ASX:MSB), CSL (ASX:CSL) and ResMed (ASX:RMD) also performed well. While, the major miners led the losses, even as iron ore prices climbed above $US160 a tonne.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients yesterday included Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) was on top of the list again, along with Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST), Westpac (ASX:WBC) and ANZ (ASX:ANZ). 

US shares continued to fall overnight, as investors try to determine the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. The Dow fell about 180 points, falling deeper into correction territory, the S&P500 was down 0.72% and the Nasdaq fell 0.28%, falling further into bear market territory.

Despite the negative session over in the US, the futures are suggesting that the Aussie share market is set to open slightly higher this morning. 

What to watch today:

• In commodities, the oil price is trading 4% higher to US$124 a barrel, and in fact popped up as much as 7% following President Joe Biden announcing a ban on Russian fossil imports including oil in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The gold price continues to trade higher, at US$2,050 per ounce.
• And the nickel price jumped a massive 88%, surging at one point to a record US$100,000 a tonne, so today keep watch of miners with exposure to nickel, such as IGO (ASX:IGO), Nickel Mines (ASX:NIC) and Western Areas (ASX:WSA).
• In economic news, the Westpac Consumer Confidence index will be released today at 10:30am AEDT. As a reminder, the index declined 1.3% to 100.8 points in February 2022, and March’s figure is expected to come in at 99.2, according to Trading Economics.
• Companies going ex-dividend today include Accent Group (ASX:AX1), Brambles (ASX:BXB), Costa Group Holdings (ASX:CGC) and Imdex (ASX:IMD).

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter have maintained its BUY rating on media technology company, Ai-Media Technologies (ASX:AIM) with a price target of $0.90. Overall, Bell Potter remains positive on the company and its outlook. In particular, they are attracted to the growing global market opportunity. AIM closed flat yesterday at $0.56, which implies 53% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central has a bearish signal on Sims (ASX:SGM), indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $18.92 to the range of $14.20 - $15.10 in the next 16 days according to standard principals of technical analysis.