Wall St closed higher overnight as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit new records. The Dow Jones rose 0.35%, the S&P 500 jumped just over 1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rallied over 1.5%. 

Over in Europe, markets closed higher overnight as the European Central Bank’s held its interest rates steady at a record 4% and revised inflation in 2024 to 2.3% from 2.7%. Germany’s DAX finished 0.71% higher, the French CAC gained 0.77% and over in the UK the FTSE100 ended the trading session 0.17% in the green.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed 0.39% higher as the vast majority of sectors finished in the green. Gains were led by the industrial and information technology sectors which rallied by 1.33% and 1.03% respectively. This was slightly offset by the energy sector which lost 1.15% 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 0.63% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
   
  • Oil is down 0.2% to US$78.97 a barrel as the latest EIA report showed a smaller-than-expected increase in US crude inventories. 
  • Gold is up 0.47% to US$2158 an ounce as investors await key US jobs data on Friday. 
  • And iron ore is trading 1.29% higher at US$117.50 a tonne.

Trading ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained a speculative buy rating on WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) with a valuation of $17.65. WA1 is advancing the West Arunta Niobium project which includes the Luni prospect in North-Western Australia. Luni has the potential to be a globally significant Tier-1 asset characterised by its high-grade and scale.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Abacus Group (ASX:ABG), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $1.16 to the range of $1.25-$1.27 on a pattern formed over 37 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.