Daytrading Jan 27 pre-market

Morning traders. Hope the post-party hangovers are not too fierce. Thanks Trees and after-market regulars.

Market wrap:

Shares face a cautiously positive start as traders return from the long weekend to a rebound on Wall Street, an anti-austerity vote in Greece and fresh five-year lows in iron ore and copper.

The March SPI 200 futures contract edged  up 13 points or more than 0.2% to 5459 as US and European stocks shrugged off Sunday's Greek election, which brought the left-wing Syriza party to power.

The S&P 500, which has traded twice since the ASX closed for the Australia Day long weekend, clawed back a little of Friday's 0.6% decline with an overnight rise of five points or 0.25%. The Dow pared Friday's 141-point drop with a rebound of six points or 0.04% overnight. The Nasdaq added to Fridays' 0.2% rally with a gain of 14 points or 0.3%.

The spotlight over the long weekend was on Greece, where the anti-austerity Syriza party won 149 out of 300 seats in Parliament on a pledge to renegotiate with international lenders the terms of the nation's bailout. The danger that a deadlock might lead to Greece exiting the euro-zone helped push the euro sharply lower and drove the nation's benchmark share index, the Athex Composite, down 3.2%. However, the well-anticipated result had minimal impact on the Stoxx Europe 600, which rose 0.55% to a new seven-year high as Germany's DAX added 1.39%, France's CAC 0.74% and Britain's FTSE 0.28%.

"More people [in the US] are focusing on a pretty busy earnings calendar this week and the Fed commentary on Wednesday," Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in the US, told Bloomberg. "Those are going to be the much bigger focus for traders than the situation in Greece."

The US Federal Reserve commences a two-day policy meeting tonight and is due to issue fresh guidance tomorrow night. Traders will look for clues to the timing of the first rate increase since the global financial crisis heralded a period of record low interest rates in the US.

Resource and energy stocks rallied overnight, despite weakness in key commodities. BHP rallied 1.12% and Rio Tinto 1.37% in US trade despite a slump in the price of iron ore to its weakest price since May 2009. Spot iron ore for import to China yesterday fell $2.60 to US$63.30 a dry tonne, extending a loss of 40 cents on Friday. On Friday, Goldman Sachs cut its price forecast for the year to US$66 a tonne from US$80. Read more here.

The US energy sector rose 1.43% even as oil declined. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for March delivery retreated 44 cents or 1% to close at US$45.15 a barrel as traders weighed the negative implications of the Greek election result.

Copper rebounded from a five-year low this morning amid speculation that China's State Reserve Bureau may take advantage of recent price weakness to replenish national reserves. In London, copper fell as low as US$5,339.50 a tonne, its cheapest since July 2009, before ending at US$5,580, a gain of 1.27%. London aluminium rose 2.84%, lead 1.3%, nickel 2.79%, tin 0.64% and zinc 1.86%. US copper for March delivery was recently up 1.6% or more than four cents at US$2.54 a pound.

Profit-taking weighed on the gold market after the Greek election. Gold for February delivery slid $13.20 or 0.1% to settle at US$1,279.40 an ounce.

"As we had anticipated on Friday, we are now seeing profit-taking in the wake of the expected victory of the radical left-wing Syriza party in the Greek parliamentary elections,” analysts at Commerzbank told MarketWatch. “After all, the sharp rise in the price of gold of 9% in US dollar terms and 18% in euro terms since the start of the year was largely attributable to the expectation of substantial ECB bond purchases and a change of government in Greece. Both have now come to pass, prompting many investors to follow the old adage of 'buy the rumour, sell the fact'."

The dollar was this morning buying 79.26 US cents.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

MIXED BAG: Seems counter-intuitive that our futures are positive despite a broadly negative train of events over the two US sessions since Friday's close. Wall Street is lower overall; iron ore and copper hit fresh lows; and Greece voted for the tooth fairy and the fantasy that the nation might not have to pay the national debt. Still, BHP and Rio went up after falling on Friday, so what do I know. Small caps were strong in the US, rising 1%. Biotechs and energy stocks ranked among the leading sector gains. Gold miners also rose more than 1%.

ECONOMIC NEWS: December business confidence figures are due at 11.30am EST. A leading index of Chinese economic indicators is due at 1pm. A busy night ahead in the US includes durable goods/core durable goods, consumer confidence, new house sales, Richmond Manufacturing Index, flash services PMI and house price index.

Good luck to all.