In the US, Wall Street was closed on Monday due to the Labour Day public holiday.

In Europe, markets closed generally higher, spurred by a boost in the defence sector. The Stoxx 600 closed up 0.17%, the FTSE gained 0.1%, the French CAC advanced 0.05% and the German DAX was the biggest gainer at 0.57%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed 0.51% lower with the majority of the key sectors in the red. Information Technology saw the biggest drop, closing down 2.65%, while on the other end consumer staples saw the biggest gain, closing up 0.35%. 

What to watch today:

• Ahead of today’s trading session, the SPI futures are suggesting the ASX will open the day down 0.09%.
• In commodities, 
  • Crude oil is up 0.97% to 64.63 US dollars per barrel. 
  • Gold is up 0.78% to 3476.08 US dollars per ounce, around $23 shy of its all time high.
  • While iron ore is trading lower, down 1.8% to 101.65 US dollars per tonne.
• Australia’s current account and export figures for Q2 are out at 11:30am AEST
• We’ll see earnings reporting from Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL), while Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) and Santos (ASX:STO) are set to go ex-dividend, which can often cause a drop in the share price of the dividend amount. 

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained its buy rating on Iron Ore miner Fenix Resources (ASX:FEX) and increased the 12 month target price to $0.65, off the back of its new binding agreement with Sinosteel Midwest Corporation granting it the exclusive right to mine and export 290 megatonnes of iron ore over 30 years at SMC’s Weld Range Iron Ore project.
• Trading Central have identified a bearish signal in Breville Group (ASX:BRG), indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $32.88 to the range of $28.10 - 29.00 over a period of 28 days according to the standard principles of technical analysis.