Wall St closed higher overnight as the S&P 500 records its fourth straight winning day up 0.75%. The Dow Jones rose 0.58% and the tech heavy Nasdaq rose by 1% as investors anticipate a rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week.

Over in Europe, markets closed in the green following a 25 basis point rate cut from the European Central Bank. The STOXX600 ended the trading session 0.78% higher with all major sectors closing positively. Germany’s DAX closed up over 1%, the French CAC jumped over half a percent and over in the UK the FTSE100 rallied 0.57%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed 1.1% higher by market close will all major sectors ending Thursday’s trading session in the green. Gains were led by the information technology and energy sectors which climbed 2.44% and 2.32% respectively.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open higher with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.56% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 2.75% higher at 69 US dollars and 16 cents a barrel following disruptions from storm Francine in the Gulf of Mexico which has led to the shutdown of around 670,000 barrels a day.
  • Gold is trading 1.87% higher at 2558 US dollars an ounce and iron ore rallied 1.12% to 92 US dollars and 30 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Genusplus Group (ASX:GNP) and has an unchanged 12-month price target of $2.70. Bell Potter’s valuation implies a 18.4% share price growth of the current share price of $2.28, hence the buy rating is maintained.
• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Lindsay Australia (ASX:LAU), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $0.91 to the range of $0.98-$1, on a pattern formed over 23 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.