5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday

Apr 21,2024
5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday

On Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) ended the week deep in the red. The benchmark index fell 1% to 7,567.3 points.

Will the market be able to bounce back from this on Monday? Here are five things to watch:

The Australian share market looks set to rebound on Monday despite another selloff on Wall Street on Friday. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 27 points or 0.35% higher. On Friday on Wall Street, the Dow Jones was up 0.5%, but the S&P 500 fell 0.9%, and the Nasdaq sank 2%. The latter was driven largely by a crashing Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) share price.

ASX 200 energy shares Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) and Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) could have a good start to the week after oil prices pushed higher on Friday night. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price was up 0.75% to US$83.34 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price was up 0.15% to US$87.23 a barrel. This couldn't stop oil prices from posting a weekly decline amid easing concerns of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

The Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) share price remains overvalued according to analysts at Goldman Sachs. In response to the lithium miner's quarterly update, the broker has reiterated its sell rating with a trimmed price target of $2.80. In addition to being overvalued, the broker warns that the miner's final dividend could be at risk. It said: "PLS' net cash declined to A$1.4bn (from ~A$1.8bn) and has almost halved over the last 6 months (partly on catch up FY23 tax in the Dec-23 quarter). As a result, we see a FY24 final dividend as increasingly unlikely."

ASX 200 gold shares including Newmont Corporation (ASX: NEM) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) could have a decent start to the week after the gold price pushed higher on Friday. According to CNBC, the spot gold price was up 0.3% to US$2,405.3 an ounce. The precious metal climbed approximately 1.3% over the week amid central bank buying and Middle East tensions.

South32 Ltd (ASX: S32) shares will be on watch on Monday when the mining giant releases its quarterly update. The market is expecting South32 to report aluminium production of 275kt, copper production of 17kt, met coal production of 1,272kt, and alumina production of 1,311kt. The latter with be a 2.1% increase quarter on quarter.