Wall St closed lower overnight as the S&P 500 fell for the fifth straight day, its longest losing streak since October. The Dow Jones gained 0.06%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost over half a percent and the S&P 500 lost 0.22%.

Over in Europe, markets closed higher as investors speculate about the first interest rate cut by the European Central Bank. Germany’s DAX closed 0.38% higher, the French CAC closed 0.52% in the green and over in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the trading session up 0.37%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed 0.48% higher with the majority of the sectors rallying. Gains were led by the information technology and materials sectors which gained 1.01% and 0.99% respectively. This was offset by the health sector which lost 0.47% by market close yesterday.

What to watch today: 

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.72% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
   
  • Oil is trading 0.64% lower at US$82.16 a barrel, following a surge in US oil inventories. 
  • Gold is trading 0.48% higher at US$2379 an ounce after financial chiefs in the US, Japan and Korea signalled a warning over depreciation in currencies. 
  • And iron ore is trading 1.16% higher at US$107.30 a tonne.

Trading Ideas: 

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on APM Human Services International (ASX:APM) despite decreasing its 12-month price target to $1.40. The buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter following the APM board receiving an offer of $1.40 per share from MDP. Hence, the 12-month target price target reflects the offer from MDP, which is believed by Bell Potter, likely to proceed.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal in Pointsbet Holdings (ASX:PBH), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $0.81 to the range of $0.88-$0.90, on a pattern formed over 24 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.