On Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) finished the week in style. The benchmark index rose 2% to 8,804 points.
Will the market be able to build on this on Monday? Here are five things to watch:
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ASX 200 expected to rise
The Australian share market looks set for a decent start to the week following a solid finish to the last one on Wall Street. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 39 points or 0.45% higher. In the United States, the Dow Jones was up 0.7%, the S&P 500 rose 0.5%, and the Nasdaq climbed 0.3%.
Oil prices tumble
ASX 200 energy shares including Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) and Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) will be on watch after oil prices tumbled on Friday night. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price was down 3.2% to US$84.88 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price was down 3.4% to US$87.33 a barrel. Reports that the US and Iran are on the verge of signing a peace deal could put further pressure on oil prices in Asian trade.
SpaceX takes off
Space Exploration Technologies Corp (NASDAQ: SPCX) had a very successful IPO on Friday. The space, satellite broadband, and AI company's shares jumped 19% to end at US$160.95. This leaves Elon Musk's SpaceX with a US$2.1 trillion valuation and makes him the world's first trillionaire.
Gold price jumps
ASX 200 gold shares including giants Newmont Corporation (ASX: NEM) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) could have a great start to the week after the gold price jumped on Friday night. According to CNBC, the gold futures price was up 3% to US$4,238.8 an ounce. Falling oil prices have eased inflation concerns and interest rate hike bets.
Buy SEEK shares
Bell Potter thinks Seek Ltd (ASX: SEK) shares are still good value despite cutting its valuation this morning. According to the note, the broker has retained its buy rating with a reduced price target of $18.60 (from $23.60). It said: "We maintain our Buy; SEK is our preferred rate-sensitive classifieds exposure looking through to a dovish RBA tilt, given the diversification in CAR and policy-impacted earnings outlook for REA. Our Target Price is reduced to $18.60sh through earnings changes and an increase in our WACC to 10.3% (prev. 10.2%), a reduction our Growth Fund valuation via Coursera and an increase in Fund discount rate to 30% (prev. 20%) on visibility in PortCo operating performance in an AI-enabled environment. SEK's underlying proprietary data (~750m points per day) partially consists of traffic meta data which is unable to be scraped by third parties, is valuable for targeted job placements, should support yield through soft volume environments."
