New York edged lower overnight amid renewed rate-worry weakness. All three major benchmarks closed in the red, and all eleven of the S&P500 industry sectors closed lower. The Dow Jones is down 0.7%, the S&P500 down 0.9% and the Nasdaq down just over 1%.

Over in Europe however, equities rallied, with the STOXX 600 closing 0.6% higher, Germany’s DAX up 0.7%, France’s CAC up 1% and the FTSE 100 up 0.3%.

What to watch today:

• Following US equities overnight, the SPI futures are suggesting the ASX200 will drop 0.35% at the open this morning.
• In commodities, oil prices are down almost 1%, pausing a three-day rally as rising US inventories offered a bleak picture for domestic demand. Gold is also in the red again, after rebounding further from one-month lows. And iron ore is down 0.5% to US$124 per tonne.
• In economic news, today the RBA will release a statement on monetary policy.
• And companies reporting today includes News Corp (ASX:NWS) and REA Group (ASX:REA).
• United Malt Group (ASX:UMG) is set to hold its AGM today.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintain a BUY rating on DDH1 (ASX:DDH) following a strong set of preliminary earnings results. They have increased their price target from $1.44 to $1.47, and at DDH’s current share price of $0.99, this implies 48.5% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central have identified a bearish signal in Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $2.04 to the range of $1.63 - $1.71, over 62 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.