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Over in the US on Tuesday, strong corporate earnings results drove Wall Street into rally territory following a turbulent, widespread sell-off last week. The Dow Jones rose 0.69%, the S&P500 gained 1.2% and the Nasdaq ended the session up 1.6%. Music streaming platform Spotify jumped 11.4% on Tuesday after beating Wall Street’s first-quarter expectations, while Tesla is set to report earnings after the closing bell today. So far, 20% of the S&P500 companies have reported with 76% having beaten analysts’ expectations according to FactSet.

In Europe overnight, markets closed higher also due to strong corporate earnings reports being released. The STOXX600 rose 1.1% on Tuesday as all sectors aside from mining closed the day in the green. Germany’s DAX rose 1.55% yesterday, the French CAC added 0.81%, and the UK’s FTSE100 rose to another intra-day record high before settling the day up 0.26%. The ease in gains on the FTSE100 followed the Bank of England’s chief economist making hawkish comments regarding the rate cut outlook in the UK.

Asia markets closed mostly in the green on Tuesday as favourable business activity in the region indicated faster expansion of activity in April, in a rebound for key economies across Asia. Japan and India recorded faster rates of expansion in April across the business sector which prompted Japan’s Nikkei to rise 0.3% on Tuesday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 2% and South Korea’s Kospi index closed just 0.24% lower on Tuesday.

The local market has recovered from last week’s sell-off to start this week in positive territory with Tuesday’s session closing up 0.45%, driven by Wall Street’s rally on Monday and ahead of key local inflation data out just before midday today with the market expecting a stark decline in inflation from an annual rate of 4.1% in Q4 to 3.4% in Q1. Tech stocks led the charge on Tuesday rallying 1.73% on inflation and rate cut outlook, while energy stocks came under pressure amid the sliding price of oil over the last week.

Gold producers were also sold off on Tuesday on the declining price of the precious commodity which sent Ramelius, Regis Resources and St Barbara lower yesterday.

Soft almond prices caused investors to flee Select Harvests on Tuesday, sending the price of the almond producer down 11%, while investors also sold out of Lifestyle Communities after the company signalled lower home settlements than expected in the latest update.

Brambles was one of the leading losses on Tuesday after the pooling and logistics solutions company posted a trading update that disappointed investors.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the midweek trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are expecting the ASX to open the day up 0.31%, tracking Wall Street’s rally overnight.
• On the commodities front this morning oil is trading 1.5% higher at US$83.35/barrel, gold is down 0.4% at US$2324.68/ounce and iron ore is up 0.34% at US$108.62/tonne.
• AU$1.00 is buying US$0.65, 100.43 Japanese Yen, 52.06 British Pence and NZ$1.09.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has increased the 12-month price target on MedAdvisor (ASX:MDR) from 44cps to 47cps and maintain a buy rating on the healthcare tech company following the release of a strong Q3 result out of the company driven by US growth including revenue of $99.8m YTD, and Q3 revenue of $24.2m which is up 42% on the PCP. The Q3 update gives Bell Potter’s analyst confidence that MedAdvisor is executing nicely on its path to profitability.
• And Bell Potter has maintained a buy rating and price target of $6.35 on Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) following the announcement of the company’s first drums of uranium being produced at its Honeymoon mine in South Australia, making Boss’s Honeymoon mine the third uranium mine operating in Australia.