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Wall Street closed higher on Friday after Fed chair Jerome Powell signalled the U.S. central bank could be easing monetary policy as soon as next month, during his speech at the Jackson hole symposium for 2025. The Dow Jones rose to a record high at the closing bell on Friday with a gain of 1.9% while the Nasdaq and S&P500 gained 1.88% and 1.52% respectively on Friday. During Powell’s speech he said “the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance” which investors welcomed on Friday.
In Europe on Friday, markets closed higher as investors digested the U.S. EU trade deal and hold higher hopes of a rate cut out of the U.S. in September. The STOXX 600 rose 0.5%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.3%, the French CAC climbed 0.4% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day at another record high, up 0.13%.

Across the Asia region on Friday markets closed mostly higher led by China’s CSI index rallying over 2%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.32%, Japan’s Nikkei closed flat as inflation in the region cooled to 3.1% in July, and South Korea’s KOSPI index ended the day up 0.86%.

Locally to end last week the ASX200 posted a 0.57% loss as healthcare and staples stocks weighed on the key index.

On the reporting season calendar on Friday, it was a mixed session as investors reacted sharply to key results. Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) soared almost 20% after posting FY25 results whereby cash EBITDA soared 147% to $170.3m, operating margin rose to 15.8%, TTV increased 30.3% to $13.1bn and total income climbed 23.5% on FY24 to $1.081bn. Net bad debts also fell from 1.7% of TTV in FY24 to 1.5% of TTV in FY25 and active customers rose 4.6% to 6.3 million. Zip also excited the market announcing it is considering dual listing on the Nasdaq to support the company’s significant US growth.

Accent Group (ASX:AX1) on the other hand dived over 15% on Friday after the footwear and clothing retail parent company reported sales growth of just 1.5% in FY25 to $1.5bn and net profit tumbled amid widespread promotional activity required to reduce inventory levels.

And Mexican fast food outlet Guzman y Gomez (ASX:GYG) tanked over 23% to a record low after FY25 results came in well below market expectations and investors grew increasingly concerned about the company’s FY26 outlook.

What to watch today:

• On the commodities front this morning oil is trading 0.4% higher at US$63.77/barrel, gold is up 0.95% at US$3371/ounce and iron ore is down 0.15% at US$101.42/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has strengthened against the greenback to buy 64.95 U.S. cents, 95.38 Japanese yen, 48 British pence and 1 New Zealand dollar and 11 cents.
• Ahead of Monday’s trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day up a sharp 0.94%

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has downgraded the rating on Monash IVF (ASX:MVF) from a buy to a hold and have reduced the 12-month price target on the company from $1.15 to 77cps following the release of the company’s latest update including 2H25 revenue declining over 6% HoH and ARS down over 12%. Market stimulated cycles fell 0.7bp to 21% due to a reduction of cycles by over 5% which is significantly more than the only slight decline in industry growth.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on PWR Holdings (ASX:PWH) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 44-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $$7.75 to the range of $5.80 to $6.30 according to standard principles of technical analysis.