Wall St closed lower overnight as the S&P 500 fell for the first time in nine trading sessions, losing 0.81%. The Dow Jones and tech-heavy Nasdaq followed suit losing 0.65% and 0.94% respectively overnight. Stocks hit session lows following Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell suggesting that more work may need to be done to lower inflation.

In terms of US shares, Disney rose 7% after reporting better-than-expected profit whist, software design company Arm dipped 6% after its first quarterly report as a public company.

European markets closed higher overnight following a series of robust corporate earnings. The STOXX600 closed 0.8% higher, led by industrials gaining 2.5%. Germany’s DAX closed 0.81% higher, the French CAC ended the trading session 1.13% in the green and over in the UK the FTSE100 gained 0.73%.

Earnings played a significant role in European market sentiment, with AstraZeneca up 2.6%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX 200 closed 0.28% higher, led by a close to 1% increase from both the health and communication services sectors. However, this was heavily offset by a 4.83% drop in the information technology sector.

What to watch today: 

• The Australian share market is set open slightly lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.04% at the open this morning.
• In terms of economic data, at 10:30 this morning, The RBA will make a statement on monetary policy.
• And on the commodities front today,
  • Oil is up 0.37% to 75 US dollars and 61 cents a barrel, following a 2% price fall on Wednesday, its lowest since mid-July. 
  • Gold is up 0.44% to 1958 US dollars an ounce and iron ore is up 0.79% to 128 US dollars a tonne with China expected to offset the debt crisis for the residential construction sector, maintaining active purchasing activity for iron ore inputs.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a speculative buy rating on ikeGPS Group (ASX:IKE) and has held on to its valuation of $0.88. The speculative buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter due to the medium and long-term outlook opportunity, underpinned by a forecasted investment of 410 billion US dollars into the North America 5G, fibre and rural broadband rollout.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Car Group (ASX:CAR), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $29.37 to the range of $31.90-$32.60 on a pattern formed over 59 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.