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Wall St fell overnight as investors await important US inflation data out on Tuesday. The S&P 500 finished the day 0.11% lower, as did the tech-heavy Nasdaq which closed 0.41% in the red. Whilst the Dow Jones added 0.12% by the closing bell. These losses come as CPI data for last month will be released in the US on Tuesday with economists predicting CPI will rise 0.4% between January and February and 3.1% on an annual basis.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower overnight to start the new trading week. The STOXX600 closed 0.4% lower with technology stocks losing 2.1% while food and beverage stocks added 0.3%. Germany’s DAX fell 0.38%, the French CAC lost 0.1% and over in the UK the FTSE100 gained 0.12%.

Locally yesterday, the ASX200 closed the trading session down 1.82% with all sectors ending in the red. Losses were led by the materials and financial sectors which fell 2.56% and 2.17% respectively.

What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open slightly higher, with the SPI futures suggesting a rise of 0.06% at market open this morning.
• Australian inflation data will be released this morning with core inflation month on month forecasted at 0.3%, slowing from the 0.4% in the previous month.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading up 0.04% at US$78.04 a barrel ahead of important US inflation data and monthly OPEC reports to be released this week.
  • Gold is trading 0.24% higher at US$2182 an ounce and iron ore is trading 0.84% lower at US$117.50 a tonne.

Trading Ideas: 

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Paragon Care (ASX:PGC) and has increased its price target to $0.31. The buy rating is maintained by Bell Potter as Paragon Care have entered into a share sale agreement with the privately owned CH2, whereby PGC will acquire all CH2 shares, with the merger transaction highly likely to proceed. The valuation is based on the full year proforma earnings for the merged group using a capitalised earnings model of 8x post-merger EBITDA, inclusive of $8m in revenue and cost synergies.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU), indicating the stock price may rise from the close of $14.77 to the range of $17-$17.50 on a pattern formed over 126 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.