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Wall Street extended its advance overnight, closing higher for the third consecutive day. The Dow gained 1.1% or 337 points. The S&P500 advanced 1.6%, and the Nasdaq advanced 2.2%, ahead of earnings releases from some big tech names. After the closing bell both Microsoft and Alphabet reported earnings that fell short of expectations. And later in the week, Amazon, Apple and Meta Platforms will report earnings. Also, a decline in bond yields contributed to the latest gains, as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was last down about 15 basis points.

European equities also had a positive run. Tech stocks were up 4%, while oil and gas stocks and bank stocks were the only sectors to end the session in negative territory. The Stoxx 600 closed 1.4% higher.

What to watch today:

• The SPI futures are suggesting the Australian market will rise 0.82% at the open this morning.
• Last night the government handed down the Federal Budget. Some of the winners included new parents and families, with increased parental leave and reduced cost of childcare. Also, battery, hydrogen fuel cell and plug-in hybrid cars are to be exempted from taxes, if their retail price is below the luxury car tax threshold. This may have an impact on battery making lithium stocks. A million new homes will also be built over 5 years from 2024, so stocks such as Lendlease (ASX:LLC) may benefit from this. On the downside however, power costs are to rise by 20% this year and 30% next year. Also, food crop losses and distribution to milk supplies due to the floods are expected to add 0.1% to inflation in the December and March quarters. Generally though, the budget doesn’t have a big influence over market movements.
• In commodities, the oil price trading higher, just under US$85 per barrel. Gold is also in the green, trading just under US$1,653 an ounce. And iron ore has regained 1%, now US$95.50 per tonne.
• In economic data, today the inflation rate for the third quarter is set to be released at 10:30am AEDT, expected to rise by 6.1% to 6.5%.
• Keep watch of the following companies, that are set to release a quarterly report today. These include Coles (ASX:COL), Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU), Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR), Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) and Westfield (ASX:URW).

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintain a Speculative Buy rating on PointsBet Holdings (ASX:PBH) and have lowered their valuation from $5.25 to $4.50. At its current share price of $2.03, this implies over 100% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central have identified a bearish signal in News Corp (ASX:NWS), indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $26.74 to the range of $22.20 to $23 over 17 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.