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Wall Street extended its rally into Wednesday after the latest FOMC minutes showed most policy makers expect a slowdown in interest rate hikes will ‘soon be appropriate’. For the first time though, the Federal Reserve staff said that a recession is possible in the next year, with some saying the Fed’s current action could exceed what was required to tackle the country’s 40-year high inflation. Trading volumes in the US have been lighter this week amid the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. The Dow Jones rose 0.28%, the Nasdaq added 1% and the S&P500 rallied 0.6%.

Over in Europe, markets closed slightly higher as investors awaited the release of the Fed’s FOMC minutes in afterhours trade. The STOXX600 rose 0.6%, Germany’s DAX rose just 0.04% and the French CAC added 0.32%.

In the UK the FTSE100 closed the midweek session almost 0.2% higher.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the local trading session the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX to open just 0.06% higher as the global rally continued overnight.
• On the commodities front this morning, crude oil is trading 4.48% lower at US$77.32 per barrel, gold is up 0.67% at US$1,751.95 an ounce, and iron ore is trading 0.51% lower at US$97 a tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has strengthened to buy 67.3 U.S. cents, 93.85 Japanese yen, 55.95 British pence and NZ$1.08.
• There is no local economic data out today, however eyes will be on New Zealand’s market today after the reserve bank of New Zealand delivered its highest ever rate hike yesterday of 75-bassi points taking the country’s cash rate to 4.25% in a bid to tackle inflation in the region.

Trading Ideas:

• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on The Lottery Corporation (ASX:TLC) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 10-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $4.56 to the range of $4.94-$5.02 according to standard principles of technical analysis.
• Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on GR Engineering Services (ASX:GNG) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 53-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $2.03 to the range of $1.80-$1.86 according to standard principles of technical analysis.