Wall St closed mixed overnight as the Dow fell for the 8th straight session, whilst the Nasdaq closed at another record high. The Dow Jones fell 0.25%, the S&P500 gained 0.38% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose by 1.24%.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower as the STOXX600 lost 0.14% with the majority of sectors closing in the red. Losses were led by autos stocks which fell 3%. Germany’s DAX lost 0.45%, the French CAC closed 0.71% lower and over in the UK the FTSE100 ended Monday’s trading session 0.46% in the red.

Locally yesterday the ASX200 fell 0.56% with most sectors closing in negative territory. Losses were led by the materials and real estate sector which dropped by 2.04% and 1.35% respectively. This was offset by the financial sector which rose by 0.17% by market close.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.17% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
   
  • Oil is trading over 1% lower at 70 US dollars and 56 cents a barrel after economic data coming out of China indicated a weakening aggregate demand from the worlds top oil importer.
  • Gold is trading 0.18% higher at 2651 US dollars an ounce and iron ore is trading 0.17% lower at 105 US dollars and 31 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Southern Cross Electrical Engineering (ASX:SXE) with a 12-month price target of $2.25. With a current share price of $1.43, this indicates a share price growth of 57.3% over the next 12-months, hence the buy rating is maintained.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Lendlease Group (ASX:LLC), indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $6.43 to the range of $5.65-$5.80, on a pattern formed over 68 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.