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The big news out of the US overnight was confirmation that the Fed would deliver its widely expected 25 basis point rate cut. Fed Chair Jerome Powell in his press conference said the move should be considered a “risk management cut”, in response to the weakening job market, and growing inflationary pressures.

In response to the cut, Wall Street saw a volatile trading session close mixed overnight. The Dow Jones soared 0.57%, boosted by stocks which benefit from the rate cut, such as Walmart, JP Morgan and American Express.

On the other end, the S&P 500 closed down 0.1%, and the NASDAQ saw a 0.33% decline as investors took profits from the high flying tech stocks, with big names like Nvidia, Oracle and Palantir all slipping.

Europe also saw a mixed session overnight – the FTSE and German DAX both saw gains overnight, closing 0.14 and 0.13% higher respectively. Meanwhile, the French CAC declined 0.4%, and the Stoxx600 closed slightly down 0.03%

It was a tough day locally as the ASX 200 closed down 0.67%, with 8 of the 11 key sectors in the red.  The real estate and consumer discretionary sectors were hit the hardest, which can likely be attributed to the fact that these are the most sensitive sectors to interest rate cuts, and so investors were bailing out prior to the fed announcement.

What to watch today:

• Looking forward to today, the SPI futures suggest the ASX will continue its slide, opening down 0.17% for the trading session.
• In commodities, Crude Oil is trading 0.85% lower at 63 US dollars and 97 cents per barrel. Similarly, gold is trading 0.86% lower at 3659.
• US dollars and 87 cents per ounce, and Iron Ore is trading 0.11% lower at 105 US dollars and 30 cents per tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has maintained its buy recommendation for cardiac therapy producers EBR Systems (ASX:EBR) with a target price of $2.25 per share, as they recently cleared the final hurdle towards a successful commercial launch of their cardiac rhythm disease treatment WiSE.
• Trading Central have identified a bearish signal in Steadfast Group (ASX:SDF), indicating that the stock price may fall from the close of $6.07 per share to the range of $5.56-$5.66 per share over a period of 9 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.