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Wall St closed lower overnight as investors continue the sell-off in some big technology names. The Dow Jones fell 1.29%, the S&P500 lost 0.78% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended Thursday’s trading session 0.7% lower.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower following the announcement that the European Central Bank will keep interest rates unchanged. The STOXX600 closed 0.16% in the red, its fourth successive day closing lower with technology stocks losing 1.8% where as autos stocks rose 1.23%. Germany’s DAX fell 0.45%, where as the French CAC and the UK’s FTSE100 both gained 0.21%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 fell 0.27% with the majority of sectors ending Thursday’s trading session in the red. Losses were led by the information technology sector which lost 3.39%. This was slightly offset by the utilities sector which closed 0.35% higher.

The unemployment rate for June was released yesterday at 4.1%, 0.1% higher than the 4% consensus and forecast.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 1.09% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 0.59% lower at US$82.36/barrel, gold is trading 0.65% lower at US$2445/ounce and iron ore is trading 0.41% lower at US$108.94/tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Duratec Limited and has a 12-month price target of $1.52. Duratec (ASX:DUR) is a WA based specialist engineering contractor, with a strong reputation in the asset protection and specialist construction space throughout Australia. The buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter as the company has good options for long term growth, particularly in the defence space and the current share price of $1.24 is an attractive entry point.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal in Adairs Limited (ASX:ADH), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $1.92 to the range of $2.19-$2.25, on a pattern formed over 51 days according to the standard principles of technical analysis.