Wall St soared overnight as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged, while hinting at possible cuts in September. The Dow Jones rose 0.24%, the S&P500 had its best day since February, rising 1.58% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.64%.

In terms of US stocks, tech giants made a big comeback, led by Nvidia which rallied 12.8% overnight. Other stocks including Apple, Meta Platforms and Amazon also finished Wednesday’s trading session higher.

Over in Europe, markets closed higher after the euro zone inflation rose unexpectedly. The STOXX600 closed 0.79% higher, led by tech stocks which gained 2.62%. Germany’s DAX rose over half a percent, the French CAC closed 0.76% higher and over in the UK the FTSE100 ended 1.13% in the green by the closing bell.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed Wednesday’s trading session 1.75% higher with all sectors finishing in positive territory. Gains led by the information technology and energy sectors which rose 2.52% and 2.47% respectively.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open higher, with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.21% by market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
   
  • Oil is trading up 5.23% at US$78.64/barrel as fears of supply disruptions increase following further tensions in the Middle East. 
  • Gold is trading 1.55% in the green at US$2447/ounce and iron ore is trading 0.32% lower at US$106.25/tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a speculative buy rating on Frontier Digital Venture (ASX:FDV) and has a 12-month price target of $0.74. The speculative buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter as FDV has several significant growth levers within its portfolio and platforms coming out of a CY23 focused on cash flows and margins. There is a favourable view of FDV’s strategy of targeting underpenetrated emerging markets with marketplace platforms and FDV emerging profitable with a positive EBITDA and operating cash flows has helped maintained Bell Potter’s speculative buy rating.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal in Nickel Industries (ASX:NIC), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $0.85 to the range of $1.11-$1.17, on a pattern formed over 51 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.