On Tuesday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was on form and charged higher. The benchmark index rose 0.7% to 9,094.7 points.
Will the market be able to build on this on Wednesday? Here are five things to watch:
ASX 200 expected to fall
The Australian share market looks set to fall on Wednesday despite a relatively positive night of trade on Wall Street. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 45 points or 0.5% lower this morning. In late trade in the United States, the Dow Jones is up 0.55% and the S&P 500 is up 0.1%, but the Nasdaq is down 0.1%.
Oil prices rise
ASX 200 energy shares including Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) and Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) could have a decent session after oil prices pushed higher overnight. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price is up 0.6% to US$57.86 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price is up 0.6% to US$61.38 a barrel. Traders appear to believe that oil prices have been oversold.
AGMs taking place
A number of annual general meetings will be taking place today and trading updates could be provided before them. Among the ASX 200 shares holding events today are APA Group (ASX: APA), Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX: FBU), National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR), and Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (ASX: RWC).
Gold price crashes
It looks set to be a bad session for ASX 200 gold shares including Newmont Corporation (ASX: NEM) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) on Wednesday after the gold price crashed overnight. According to CNBC, the gold futures price is down 5.6% to US$4,116.3 an ounce. This appears to have been driven by profit taking after gold's record rally.
Buy Hub24 shares
Hub24 Ltd (ASX: HUB) shares can keep rising according to analysts at Bell Potter. On Tuesday, the investment platform provider's shares jumped 10% following the release of a strong first quarter update. In response, Bell Potter has retained its buy rating on its shares with an improved price target of $135.00 (from $125.00). It said: "The current environment feels like FY22 when HUB traded around 37x blended forward EBITDA and market inflows are increasing from record levels. To that end we also think there is underappreciation of the expanded growth runway, with an appetite to allocate more advised clients and capital on platform. Investors have continued to re-rate HUB when exceeding expectations and we see emerging upside risk to FY27 guidance. Buy."
