G'day folks and welcome to another trading day with your friendly, neighbourhood CMC Market Analyst! 

For real-time up-to-date data/news/research/ideas/strategies, check out our insights panel on the CMC Markets Invest platform and follow us on Twitter: 

Azeem Sheriff - @Azeem__Sheriff 
Tina Teng - @Tinateng_CMC
CMC Markets ANZ - @CMCMarketsAUSNZ
CMC Markets Singapore - @CMCMarketsSG
CMC Markets Canada - @CMCMarkets_CA

Trading Idea of the Day
 

NASDAQ:BIDU - Baidu Inc - (BULLISH - long term & BULLISH - short term)

• Key levels on the chart - consider taking trades from key support/resistance zones. 
• Price is significantly undervalued and at a key support, a level not seen since the beginning of COVID.
• There are some notable similarities between Baidu and Alphabet (Google's parent). Both started their operations as search engines but have since exponentially grown and expanded their revenue streams, expanding into mapping, AI and cloud services which present major opportunities for growth.
• As China emerges from its economic slowdowns, we could potentially start to see a pivot in the share price as some investors could be taking early bets on the success of Baidu’s driverless Robo-taxi service, Apollo GO, which plans to operate in 65 Chinese cities by 2025.

ASX & Economic Key Events

ASX Key Events Calendar (TODAY)

Economic Key Events (TODAY)

Economic Key Events (YESTERDAY)

OPTO For Investors Research

Article of the Day: Microsoft, Activision Blizzard shares react to FTC merger threat

Podcast of the Day: The Lead-Lag Report’s Michael Gayed on this year’s treasury anomaly
 

APAC Daily Report

Click here to access our daily APAC report, prepared by my fellow market analyst @TinaTeng_CMC
 

Market Snapshot & Highlights as of 8:00am AEDT

EXPECTATIONS: Energy HIGHER (higher oil prices) & Materials HIGHER on overall higher base metal prices.

Global Markets Headlines
 

• Sam Bankman-Fried criminal charges unsealed: Conspiracy to defraud the U.S., wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering (CNBC)

• The Fed has to portray itself as tough on inflation even as it pushes through a smaller rate hike (CNBC)
• U.S. consumer prices rose less than expected in November, up 7.1% from a year ago (CNBC)
• Binance temporarily halted withdrawals of stablecoin USDC as investor fears mount after FTX collapse (CNBC)
• Why tech insiders are so excited about ChatGPT, a chatbot that answers questions and writes essays (CNBC)
• Lawmakers unveil bipartisan bill that aims to ban TikTok in the U.S. (CNBC)
• Blizzard seeks new partners to continue offering World of Warcraft in China (CNBC)
• China brings WTO case against U.S. and its sweeping chip export curbs as tech tensions escalate (CNBC)
   

(All news & data sourced from AFR / The Australian / Bloomberg / Reuters / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / Morningstar / OPTO / Trading Economics)