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The US markets extended the green run this week into Tuesday as investors anticipate the midterm election results, expecting Republicans to take back the House of Representatives and possibly win the Senate as well, which could impact government spending and regulation. The Dow Jones industrials index added 1.36%, the S&P500 gained 0.97%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rallied 0.85%.

Over in Europe, markets closed higher as global investors looked to the US where the midterm elections are dominating headlines. The STOXX600 rallied to close Tuesday’s session 0.78% higher, while Germany’s DAX added 1.15% and the French CAC closed the session up 0.39%. In the UK, the FTSE100 added just 0.08% at the closing bell on Tuesday which was a recovery from a sell-off early in the session. The morning sell-off was sparked by British Retail Consortium figures showing UK retail sales growth slowed in October to 1.2% YoY compared to 1.8% in September which dampened investor sentiment.

What to watch today:

• In commodities, it’s been a mixed week across the board with commodities moving with investor sentiment around China’s COVID zero goal updates. This morning, crude oil is trading 1.32% lower at US$90.57 per barrel, natural gas is down 10.54%, gold is trading up 2.32% at US$1712 per ounce, and Iron ore is down 0.56% at US$88.50 per tonne.
• Ahead of the local trading day the SPI futures are expecting the local market to open 0.73% higher on the back of a strong session on Wall Street so far on Tuesday.
• The Aussie dollar has strengthened to buy 64.5 US cents, 56.25 British Pence, 95.07 Japanese Yen and 1 New Zealand Dollar and 9 cents.
• On the economic data front today, China’s inflation rate for October will be announced today with the market expecting the inflation in the region to have slightly cooled in October to 2.6% from 2.8% in September. High inflation is bad for markets and stock markets are forward looking. Inflation expectations have already been priced into current share prices so the risk for investors is that the inflation number comes in higher than expected and, if it does, then that is likely to put further pressure on share prices. With so much commentary on inflation right now, it’s important for listeners to look at what has already been priced in and new information that has not because that is where we will see movement.

Trading Ideas:

• Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 7-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may rise from the close of $6.96 to the range of $8.10 to $8.40 according to standard principles of technical analysis.
• Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Infomedia Limited (ASX:IFM) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 24-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $1.23 to the range of $1.02 to $1.06 according to standard principles of technical analysis.