In the US overnight, investors were buoyed by renewed optimism following news that 8 Democratic senators broke from party leadership and voted to end the Government shutdown, which has been running now since the 1st of October. Wall St responded with strong gains – the Dow Jones advanced 0.9%, the S&P 500 gained 1.6%, while the Nasdaq saw a 2.3% jump, lead by strong rallies across the tech megacap stocks. 

Europe and Asia saw similar trends to the US, with a sea of green across all the major markets. In Europe, the British, German and French indexes all advanced more than 1%, while in Asia the Chinese CSI, Japanese Nikkei and Hong Kong Hang Seng gained 0.35, 1.26 and 1.55% respectively. 

Locally yesterday, the ASX opened the week on a positive note, advancing 0.8% in its strongest day in a month. 9 out of the 11 key sectors closed in the green, lead by a strong rebound in Information Technology, which has been hit particularly hard in recent trading days. Notable stocks in the sector include Life360 (ASX:360) which advanced 3.6%, and WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC), which rebounded 6.2%. 

What to watch today:

• And looking ahead to today, yesterday’s positive momentum is expected to continue, with the SPI futures indicating a further 0.5% jump for the ASX at the open. 
• In commodities, the price of both Gold and Silver have surged as investors react to soft economic data coming out of the US and increased belief that a further rate cut will come from the Fed in December. Gold is up 2.8% to 4114 USD per ounce, while Silver is up 4.3% to 50.5USD per ounce.  Meanwhile, Crude Oil is trading up 0.7% at 60.1 USD per barrel, while Iron Ore is trading up 0.6% to 104 USD per tonne. 

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has upgraded its rating on Western NSW based copper and gold miner Aeris Resources (ASX:AIS) from a hold to a buy, with a target price of $0.65 per share. This comes on a trio of big announcements which are catalysts for future growth: an $80m equity raise, discovery of a maiden ore reserve at one of its key sites, and the sale of some small scale copper assets. 
• And trading central have identified a bullish signal on Regis Resources (ASX:RRL), indicating that the price may rise from the close of $6.70 per share, to the range of $7.40 to $7.60 per share over a period of 16 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.