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Wall St closed higher overnight as the major averages rise to new record levels. The Dow Jones rallied 0.68%, the S&P500 closed 0.32% higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the trading session 0.2% in the green.

Over in Europe, markets closed higher overnight as European stocks hit record highs following monetary policy decisions from the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank. The STOXX600 ended the trading session up 0.9% with nearly all sectors finishing in the green with technology stocks up 3.2%, whilst utilities fell 0.39%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed 1.12% higher with the majority of sectors finishing in the green. Gains were led by the financial and consumer discretionary sectors which rose 1.74% and 1.5% respectively. This was slightly offset by the utilities sector which fell 0.59% by market close.

Australian unemployment data was also released yesterday, down to 3.7% from the previous result of 4.1% and the consensus of 4%.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.18% at market open this morning.
• On the commodity front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 0.67% lower at US$80.72 a barrel as Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries stoke supply concerns.
  • Gold is trading down 0.23% to US$2180 an ounce as investors become confident central banks will ease monetary policies soon.
  • And iron ore is trading flat at US$108.50 a tonne as hopes for a recovery in Chinese demand prevents a further sell off.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained a speculative buy rating on Clarity Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CU6) with a current price per share of $3.00. The speculative buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter with them giving CU6 a valuation of $3.90 per share, implying a 30% share price growth in a year.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Bega Cheese (ASX:BGA), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $4.15 to the range of $4.60-$4.70, on a pattern formed over 17 days according to the standard principles of technical analysis.