Wall Street has extended on its record finish to trade higher yet again overnight. The Dow Jones jumped 0.47%, the S&P 500 gained 0.77% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose by 0.87%.

So far, this third quarter earnings season, the 30 companies on the S&P500 that have reported have beat earnings expectations by about 5% on average which is better than the 3% beat this time last quarter.

Over in Europe, markets closed higher following market rallies in Wall St overnight. The STOXX600 gained half a percent by the end of the trading day with tech stocks jumping 1.7%, whilst travel and leisure stocks fell 0.8%. Germany’s DAX rose 0.69%, the French CAC gained 0.32% and over in the UK the FTSE100 ended Monday’s trading session 0.47% in the green.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 rose 0.47% despite the majority of sectors finishing in negative territory. Gains were led by the material and health sectors which rose by 1.3% and 0.89% respectively. This was offset by the energy sector which fell by 1.26%.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open higher, with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.45% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
   
  • At the time of recording, oil is trading 4.5% lower to 72 US dollars and 17 cents a barrel following concerns over China’s weakening economy after China’s Finance Ministry briefing on Saturday, which lacked new major financial stimulus. 
  • Gold is trading 0.39% lower at 2646 US dollars an ounce and iron ore is trading 0.6% higher at 106 US dollars and 44 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Bega Cheese (ASX:BGA) and has a current share price of $5.25. The 12-month price target of $6.45 represents a share price growth of 22.9% over the next 12-months, hence the buy rating is maintained.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Perentin Ltd (ASX:PRN), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $1.05 to the range of $1.18-$1.22, on a pattern formed over 71 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.