Starting in the US overnight, Wall St saw a relatively flat session, as all eyes remain on the impending Fed meeting later this week. While investors are expecting a nearly 90% chance of a rate cut, focus will be on the economic projections and the general sentiment of Chairman Jerome Powell to help shape how markets will react over the next few weeks. The S&P500 closed the trading day flat, the Nasdaq gained 0.1%, while the Dow Jones fell 0.4%, primarily weighed down by 4.7% drop for JP Moregan Chase, who reported higher than expected 2026 expense projections. Elsewhere, it was a similar story in Europe as the Stoxx600 index ended the day slightly down 0.1%, where 0.5% rise for the German Dax and a 0.7% fall for the French CAC offset, while the FTSE remained just about flat. And in Asia, the Chinese CSI fell 0.5%, the Hang Seng fell 1.3%, while the Nikkei added 0.1%. Locally yesterday, the ASX200 extended on its losses from Monday with a 0.5% slide, mainly in the afternoon after the RBA announced that the cash rate would remain unchanged at 3.6%. Although this was widely expected, the market reacted to comments from RBA Governor Michele Bullock stating that no rate cuts were on the horizon for the “foreseeable future.” What to watch today: Looking ahead to today however, the ASX is expected to rebound from the last 2 days’ losses, with the SPI futures indicating a 0.3% jump at the open of trade.Over to commodities,Crude Oil prices have slipped a further 0.8% to US$58.40 per barrel.In precious metals, Gold is trading up 0.5% at US$4209 per ounce, while Silver has jumped another 4.5% to over US$60 per ounce, smashing its previous all time high and reaching 110% price gain year to date. The run is driven by squeezing supply, as well as a surge in demand for industrial usage, as silver is currently used in areas such as electronics and solar panels. Meanwhile, Iron Ore remains stable at US$106.29 per tonne.Trading Ideas: Finally, we’ll dive into some trading ideas for your consideration today. Bell Potter maintains its buy rating on online automative retailer CAR Group (ASX:CAR), with a 12 month price target of $42.20 per share. Their recommendation is based on its steadily accelerating growth, and forecasted earnings for next year.And Trading Central have identified a Bullish signal in Vicinity Centres (ASX:VCX), indicating that the price may rise from the close of $2.48 to the range of $2.69 to $2.73 over a period of 24 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.
