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Wall St closed lower on Thursday as investors start counting down to the release of key jobs data on Friday. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day just over 0.1% lower each whilst the Dow Jones closed flat, only down 0.03%.

Thursday losses were led by the consumer staples sector with beverage company Molson Coors retreating 6.3%, followed by Mondelez International and Clorox declining more than 5% each.

Over in Europe, markets closed higher following a retreat in US treasury yields. The STOXX600 ended its three-day losing streak, finishing 0.3% higher lead by travel stocks which rallied 1.5%. The UK’s FTSE100 closed just over half a percent higher on Thursday, while Germany’s DAX fell 0.20% and the French CAC ended the trading session flat.

Locally yesterday, the Australian market closed 0.51% in the green following strong rallies from the real estate and information technology sectors which finished 2.10% and 1.73% higher respectively. This was slightly offset by the energy sector, which fell 0.89% yesterday.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open slightly higher, with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.03% at the open this morning.
• On the commodity front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 2.08% lower at 82 US dollars and 46 cents a barrel with the four-week average for gasoline demand reaching its lowest point for this time of year since 1998.
  • Gold is down slightly by 0.05% to 1820 US dollars an ounce as the US dollar and treasury yields pulled back on weaker-than-expected US job data.
  • And iron ore is trading flat at 119 US dollars and 50 cents a tonne following a hampered outlook construction materials in China.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a speculative buy rating on Strike Energy (ASX:STX) and has an unchanged valuation of $0.58 per share with its current price at $0.44 per share. This speculative buy rating is maintained as Strike Energy owns the largest reserves plus contingent resources position in Perth basin and recent market consolidation has highlighted the tightening supply-demand fundamentals in the WA domestic gas market.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal in Helia Group (ASX:HLI), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $3.58 to the range of $4.02 to $4.12, on a pattern formed over 18 days according to the standard principles of technical analysis.