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Wall St closed mixed again on Tuesday as investors await key inflation data out in the region on Wednesday US time and following the release of a lighter-than-expected producer price index report. The Dow Jones rose 0.52%, the S&P500 gained 0.11% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day down 0.23%. The US PPI index which measures wholesale inflation increased just 0.2% in December which was below the 0.4% economists were expecting and indicates inflation is continuing to cool in the US.

In Europe overnight, markets in the region closed mixed with the STOXX 600 falling 0.08% while the UK’s FTSE 100 shed 0.28%, but in Germany the DAX rose 0.7% and in France, the CAC ended the day up 0.2%.

Across the Asia region on Tuesday, markets mostly rose, tracking investor moves in the US out of tech stocks and into other areas of the market. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.9% on Tuesday, South Korea’s Kospi Index gained 0.31%, and China’s CSI index added 2.63%, but Japan’s Nikkei was the outlier with a fall of 1.83% yesterday.

The local market rose 0.48% on Tuesday despite global market turbulence on Monday. Rising bond yields and strength in the US economy spooked investors late last week with concerns the Fed will not cut rates again at least in the near-term, but locally, investor optimism has risen early in the week to send the key index higher for the last 2-days.

The energy and materials sectors did most of the heavy lifting yesterday driven by a rally for oil and iron ore prices on favourable outlook on a global scale.

Westpac consumer confidence data out yesterday for January indicated consumer pessimism persists with a decrease of 0.7%, following on from the 2% decrease in December. While the reading is a second decline in consumer sentiment, the level is still above that from a year ago and signals consumers are expecting a gradual improvement in conditions in 2025.

Star Entertainment Group once again led the gains on Tuesday with a gain of 12% at the closing bell despite the embattled casino operator being around 6-weeks away from collapse with just $79m left in the bank. Investors were buying in again yesterday after a mystery Macau businessman continued buying up shares in the stock with another 28m purchased by Xingchun Wang yesterday.

And in the retail space City Chic shares rose over 11% as investors welcomed the plus size fashion retailer’s first half trading update including strong sales over the holiday period, reduced inventory and a return to profitability.

The winning stocks on the ASX200 yesterday were led by Ingenia Communities Group rallying 13.05%, Star Entertainment Group rising 12% and Polynovo adding 6.4%.

And on the losing end Life360 fell 3.3%, West African Resources lost 3.12% and HMC Capital ended the day down 2.45%.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the midweek trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are anticipating the ASX will open the day up 0.07%.
• The Aussie dollar has further weakened overnight to buy US$0.61, 97.79 Japanese Yen, 50.79 British Pence and 1 NZ$1.11.
• On the commodities front this morning, oil has retreated 1.42% to trade at US$77.68/barrel, gold is up 0.08% at US$2670/ounce and iron ore is up 0.64% at US$98.72/tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained a spec buy rating and 12-month price target of $1.30/share on Opthea (ASX:OPT) following the release of Phase 3 trials baseline data being released leading to confidence in the company’s sozinibercept combination therapy in diabetic macular edema as the Phase 3 patient populations are broadly similar to those included in the previous Phase 2b trials. The analyst is also confident with Opthea’s cash runway with $130m in the bank.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on SkyCity Entertainment (ASX:SKC) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 98-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $1.27 to the range of $1.04 to $1.08 according to standard principles of technical analysis.