Wall St closed lower overnight as the slow start to October continues as Middle Eastern tensions continue and investors await for unemployment data later on tonight. The Dow Jones fell 0.44%, the S&P500 dropped 0.17% and the tech heavy Nasdaq lost 0.04%.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower with the STOXX600 closing 1% lower. All major sectors closed in the red with construction and materials stocks leading losses down 2%. Germany’s DAX fell 0.78%, the French CAC dropped 1.32% and over in the UK the FTSE100 lost 0.1%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 rose by 0.09% with half of the major sectors ending in the green. Gains were led by the real estate sector which gained 1.65% with this being offset by the utilities sector which dropped by 0.41% by the closing bell.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.33% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 5.54% higher at 73 US dollars and 98 cents a barrel following rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East
  • Gold is trading 0.18% lower at 2655 US dollars an ounce and iron ore is trading 0.51% higher at 109 US dollars and 29 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Cedar Woods Properties (ASX:CWP) and has a current share price of $5.60. The 12-month price target of $7.15, indicates a 27.7% growth target in a year, hence the buy rating is maintained.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on TPG Telecom (ASX:TPG), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $5.04 to the range of $5.31-$5.39, on a pattern formed over 17 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.