Wall St closed higher overnight as the Dow Jones rose to a record close following a sell-off in its previous session, rising 0.79%. The S&P 500 rose by 0.47% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped by 0.27%.

In terms of US stocks, Morgan Stanley gained 6.5% following strong third-quarter earnings which toppled Wall Street expectations.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower overnight with chips stocks and luxury goods leading losses following sales warnings. The STOXX600 fell 0.15% with half of the major sectors ending Wednesday’s trading session in negative territory. Germany’s Dax fell 0.27%, the French CAC lost 0.4% and over in the UK, the FTSE100 gained nearly 1% overnight.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 fell by 0.4% with all but one major sector closing in the red. Losses were led by the information technology and utilities sectors which dropped 1.35% and 1.21% respectively. This was offset by the financial sector which gained 0.27% by the closing bell.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open higher, with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.72% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 0.12% higher at 70 US dollars and 67 cents a barrel following continued uncertainty over the war in the Middle East.
  • Gold is trading half a percent higher at 2673 US dollars an ounce and iron ore is trading 0.45% lower at 106 US dollars and 63 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) and has a 12-month price target of $3.06. The 12-month price target of $4.30, indicates a share price growth of 40.5%, hence the buy rating is maintained.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal in Kina Securities (ASX:KSL), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $1.04 to the range of $1.08-$1.10, on a pattern formed over 16 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.