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Wall St closed higher on Tuesday as investors hold onto hopes of a ceasefire in the Middle East. The Dow Jones rose 1.2%, the S&P500 added 1.11% and the Nasdaq ended the day up 1.43%.

While President Trump reported on Tuesday morning that a ceasefire between Iran and Israel has been agreed upon, reports then followed that Iran has not agreed to a ceasefire thus sparking fears of prolonged tensions. Despite this confusion, markets still rallied, and energy stocks plummeted amid the dive in the price of oil overnight.

In Europe overnight, global hopes of a ceasefire boosted markets in the region with the STOXX 600 rising 1.2% on Tuesday while Germany’s DAX added 1.6%, the French CAC rose 1% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day flat. Oil and gas stocks weighed on market gains in the region amid the tumbling price of energy commodities due to the lack of supply concerns from the Middle East that initially led to a spike when the war between Iran and Israel first broke out.

Across the Asia region on Tuesday, positive global sentiment on ceasefire hopes extended into the region with markets closing higher led by South Korea’s Kospi Index rising 2.96%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.06%, China’s CSI index gained 1.2% and Japan’s Nikkei added 1.14% on Tuesday.

Ceasefire talks in the Middle East boosted global investor sentiment overnight leading to the local market rallying 0.95% on Tuesday led by materials stocks posting a near 2% gain, while the energy sector tumbled almost 4% on the sliding price of oil.

Two local IPOs had investors hitting the buy button yesterday with Greatland Gold (ASX:GGP) jumping 7.9% on debut while Virgin Australia (ASX:VAH) shares also took flight on IPO with the airline ending its re-debut session up over 8%.

KFC Australia operator Collins Food (ASX:CKF) soared 16.5% yesterday despite announcing weaker results for FY25 including NPAT down almost 15% and the full year dividend down 7%. Investors likely welcomed the strength of results in the second half of FY25 and revenue increasing over 2%.

What to watch today 

• On the commodities front this morning oil has extended its decline to trade 5.92% lower at US$64.45/barrel, uranium is up 2.17% at US$77.55/pound, gold is down 1.51% at US$3317.46/ounce and iron ore is down 0.02% at US$94.75/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has strengthened against the greenback to buy 65.04 US cents, 94.12 Japanese Yen, 47.86 British Pence and 1 New Zealand dollar and 8 cents.
• Ahead of the midweek trading session in Australia the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day up 0.06% tracking global market gains overnight.

Trading Ideas

• Bell Potter has downgraded the rating on Adairs (ASX:ADH) from a buy to a hold and have reduced the 12-month price target on the company from $2.65 to $2.10 following the release of Adairs’ Q4 results including higher fixed costs and the company’s Focus on Furniture division down 9.3% on the PCP amid tough market headwinds.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Ampol (ASX:ALD) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 33-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $25.34 to the range of $23.40-$23.80 according to standard principles of technical analysis.