Wall St has closed lower for the third straight day as investors await Important inflation data coming out later in the week. The Dow Jones lost 0.06%, the S&P500 dropped 0.17% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the trading session 0.55% lower.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower as cautious investment sentiment continued on from earlier in the week. The STOXX600 closed 0.3% lower with the majority of sectors ending the trading session in the red. Losses were led by technology stocks which lost 1.4%, whilst auto stocks rose by almost 1%. Germany’s DAX gained 0.25%, the French CAC gained 0.08% and over in the UK the FTSE100 closed 0.76% lower.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed 0.03% lower with the consumer staples sector leading losses, down 0.81%. This was offset by the information technology sector which rallied 2.88% by the closing bell. Also yesterday, CPI data for January was released with it staying steady at 3.4%, the same as the previous month, 0.2% lower than the consensus and forecast of 3.6%.

What to watch today: 

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.25% at the open this morning.
• On the commodity front this morning,
  • Oil is trading over half a percent lower at US$78.44 cents a barrel, with the latest EIA report showing a higher-then-expected 4.199 million barrel rise in US crude oil inventories last week. 
  • Gold is trading 0.20% higher at US$2033 an ounce and iron ore is trading flat at US$119.50 cents a tonne. 

Trading Ideas: 

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating of Cyclopharm (ASX:CYC) and has kept its 12-month price target steady at $3.80. The buy rating is maintained following strong earnings results in which commercial revenue increased by 14%. As well, short term catalysts include the announcement of first patient images from the US and subsequent contract signings of which are at various stages of approval.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Abacus Group (ASX:ABG), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $1.14 to the range of $1.16-$1.18, on a pattern formed over 19 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.