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Wall St closed lower overnight, despite a rally in AI stocks as part of the artificial intelligence boom. The S&P500 lost 0.12%, the Dow Jones fell 0.25% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the trading session 0.41% lower. These losses were pulled back by AI company Nvidia, which soared 18% as the S&P Dow Jones indices revealed it would join the S&P 500 later this month.

Over in Europe, markets closed slightly lower as investors await the European Central Bank meeting. The STOXX600 closed 0.07% lower with most stocks closing in the red including mining stocks which fell 1.24% with tech stocks gaining 0.8%. Germany’s DAX closed 0.11% lower, the French CAC gained 0.28% and over in the UK the FTSE100 closed just over half a percent down.

Locally yesterday, markets closed 0.13% lower as the majority of sectors finished in the red. Losses were led by the health and utilities sector which lost 0.78% and 0.77% respectively. This was slightly offset by the real estate sector which gained 1.34%.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open slightly higher, with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.05% at the open this morning.
• On the commodity front this morning,
  • Oil is trading down 1.54% at US$78.13 a barrel after OPEC and its allies agreed to extend voluntary production cuts until the end of June.
  • Gold is trading 1.62% higher to US$2117 an ounce and iron ore is trading flat at US$117.50 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on DroneShield (ASX:DRO) with a 12-month price target of $0.90. The buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter as DroneShield is now a profitable growth company after its first profitable year with an NPAT of $9.3m. The company is also exposed to relevant investment trends, including rising defence expenditure globally, the increasing risk of drones and the role of AI/ML technology.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal in Piedmont Lithium (ASX:PLL), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $0.24 to the range of $0.28-$0.30, on a pattern formed over 21 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.