Wall St closed mixed overnight as the Dow Jones ended a four-day winning streak, down by 0.13%. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq both finished marginally higher, up 0.12% and 0.07% respectively.

In terms of US shares, Walmart dropped more than 7% after the company offered weak guidance for the current quarter. And Palo Alto Networks also lost 6% after issuing a poor forecast on billings.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower following a reduction in positive sentiment. The STOXX600 closed 0.7% lower, with most sectors ending the trading session in the red. Losses were led by oil and gas stocks with a 2.7% loss following weaker oil prices. Germany’s DAX gained 0.24% overnight, the French CAC dropped 0.57% and over in the UK the FTSE100 ended the day just over 1% in the red.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed Thursday’s session down 0.67% with the energy and information technology sectors leading losses by 1.19% and 1.02% respectively. This was slightly offset by the utilities sector which saw a 0.59% increase by close of market yesterday.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.1% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front,
  • Oil is down 5.03% to US$82.72/barrel following lower demand and eased concerns of scarce supply. 
  • Gold is up 1.14% to US$1981/ounce and iron ore is trading flat at US$133/tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained a buy rating on Australian Agricultural Company (ASX:AAC) and has increased its price target by $0.05 to $1.90. The buy rating is maintained as AAC continues to demonstrate growth in through the cycle returns as the revenue shifts from cattle to meat.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Myer Holdings (ASX:MYR), indicting that the stock price may rise form the close of $0.54 to the range of $0.59-$0.61, on a pattern formed over 42 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.