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Wall St fell overnight as the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged in its first policy decision of the year. The Dow Jones fell 0.31%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.47% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed just over half a percent higher.

Over in Europe, markets closed higher as corporate earnings results start to get released. The STOXX600 rose by half a percent with gains lead by the technology sector which rose by 2%. Germany’s DAX jumped nearly 1%, the French CAC fell 0.32% and over in the UK the FTSE100 rose by 0.28%.

Locally yesterday the ASX200 rose by 0.57% following the release of important inflation data. The quarterly inflation print has boosted investor sentiment and hopes for the RBA rate cut cycle to begin in February as underling inflation fell at a sharper rate than expected to the lowest level in 3-years of 3.2% for the December quarter.

Star Entertainment shares rose over 13% yesterday after the company made its first sale of non-core assets to the value of $60m for the sale of its Sydney entertainment centre assets. While it isn’t enough to revive the company, it is a welcome start on the journey to rebuilding.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.06% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 1.08% lower at 72 US dollars and 97 cents a barrel following concerns over rising US stockpiles.
  • Gold is trading 0.21% lower at 2756 US dollars an ounce and iron ore is trading 0.04% lower at 101 US dollars and 30 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has slightly increased the 12-month price target on Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) from $2.95 to $3.00 and maintain a buy rating on the leading lithium producer following the release of the company’s 2Q25 results. Despite depreciated pricing of lithium in the current cycle, PLS beat analysts’ expectations for sales volumes and average realised pricing.
• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 41-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $4.23 to the range of $4.37 to $4.41 according to standard principles of technical analysis.