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Wall Street closed lower on Friday as investor fears of a slowing economy rose after key U.S. non-farm payrolls data came in much weaker than expected. The Dow lost 0.5%, the Nasdaq declined 0.03% and the S&P 500 ended the day down 0.32%.

For the month of August nonfarm payrolls increased by only 22,000 jobs, significantly lower than the 75,000 jobs economists were expecting to be added. U.S. unemployment rate also rose to 4.3% for the month, up from 4.2% signalling a weakening labour market.

While a rate cut out of the Fed is almost certain now, investors are more concerned over the long-term impact of a slowing economy, and fears of a recession continue to rise.

In Europe on Friday markets closed lower as investors in the region also assessed the weakening economic condition of the U.S. following a weaker than expected jobs reading out on Friday. The STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.73%, the French CAC declined 0.31%, and in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day down 0.09%.

Across the Asia region on Friday markets closed mostly higher after President Trump formalised lower tariffs on Japanese auto tariffs with a baseline tariff of 15% across all Japanese imports. Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.03%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.71% and South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.13%.

Locally on Friday the ASX200 posted a 0.51% rise on Friday as real estate and discretionary stocks rose 1.37% and 1.33% respectively.

Gold stocks gained further ground on Friday amid the record price of the precious commodity as investors once again flocked to safe-haven assets in the wake of further global uncertainty.

Qantas (ASX:QAN) shares rose 1.5% on Friday on news that chief executive Vanessa Hudson’s bonus would be docked over the airline’s recent cybersecurity breach, while Orica shares added over 1% after the company signalled positive momentum is driving higher underlying earnings across its business for H2 ending September 30. 

What to watch today:

• On the commodities front this morning oil is trading 2.38% lower at US$61.97/barrel, gold is up 1.3% at US$3592.50/ounce, and iron ore is down 0.04% at US$104.49/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has strengthened against the greenback to buy 65.57 U.S. cents, 97.10 Japanese yen, 48.53 British pence, and 1 New Zealand dollar and 11 cents.
• Ahead of the first session of the new trading week the SPI futures are anticipating the market will open the day down 0.2%.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the rating on Technology One (ASX:TNE) from a sell to a hold and have maintained the 12-month price target on the company at $35.75/share, amid changes in forecasting for the company with Bell Potter’s analyst and the market anticipating a beat in November. At a stock specific level, we do not see much risk of any disappointment or negative catalyst and, as mentioned, we already expect the company to exceed its guidance when it reports in November.
• And Bell Potter has also reduced the rating on Curvebeam AI (ASX:CVB) from a spec buy to a hold and have a 15cps price target on the company following the release of the company’s FY25 results including revenues and gross profit of $12.1m and $6.7m respectively. The reason for the downgrade to a hold comes from lack of guidance, Hi rise device sales continuing to be constrained by the Mako validation matter and the hybrid of capitalised earnings.