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Wall St rallied again on Tuesday as investor optimism about the banking crisis recovering lifted stocks in the US, with shares of banks leading the charge on the second trading session this week. Investors also responded to the efforts of the US and Europe to stabilise the global banking system. The Dow Jones rose just under 1%, the S&P500 added 1.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.6% on Tuesday.

Investors now shift focused to the all-important FOMC meeting in the US this week where it is anticipated the Fed will announce a 25-basis point rate hike at the conclusion of the meeting on Thursday morning Australian time.

Overnight in Europe, markets closed higher as investor fears of a global banking crisis settled following UBS’ takeover of rival bank Credit Suisse. Germany’s DAX rose 1.75%, the French CAC added 1.42% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 added 1.8%.

On the local index yesterday, the RBA’s latest meeting minutes being released hinted that a rate pause is being considered for April which fuelled a rally on the local bourse. The ASX closed 0.82% higher on Tuesday buoyed by optimism from the release of the RBA’s minutes and on the back of the global rally that started the week on a positive note.

It has been a big week on the M&A front – Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) lobbed a takeover offer at Breaker Resources (ASX:BRB), and Australian Clinical Labs (ASX:ACL) launched a takeover offer at Healius (ASX:HLS), with the deal creating the nation’s largest pathology services provider, should it go ahead. And just yesterday Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals made a $760m takeover offer for nickel producer Mincor Resources (ASX:MCR), sending shares in Mincor rocketing 42% during the session, as Forrest looks to expand his presence in the battery metal space.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the local trading session the ASX is poised to open 0.9% higher on the back of the global rally overnight.
• On the commodities front this morning crude oil has recovered some ground from its tumble over the last week to trade 2.7% higher this morning at US$69.66/barrel, gold is down almost 2% at US$1940/ounce and iron ore is down 2.65% at US$128.50/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar is buying 67 US cents, 88.26 Japanese Yen, 54.89 British Pence and 1 New Zealand dollar and 8 cents.
• Stocks trading ex-dividend today include Myer (ASX:MYR), Seek (ASX:SEK) and Supply Network (ASX:SNL). If you’ve been thinking about these stocks, it might be worth considering buying in today as stocks trading ex-dividend generally trade lower on the ex-dividend date.

Trading Ideas:

• Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on DDH1 (ASX:DDH) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 90 days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $0.82 to the range of $0.65 to $0.69 according to standard principles of technical analysis.
• Trading Central has also identified a bearish signal on Metcash Limited (ASX:MTS) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 450 days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $3.79 to the range of $2.50 to $2.80 according to standard principles of technical analysis.