Market wrap: A listless night on global markets offers traders little direction this morning but an eighth straight positive start is likely.
Futures traders expect our market to open 7 points ahead despite a mixed night for commodities and overseas equities. The March SPI futures contract closed at 4809.
In the absence of any significant economic news, Wall Street took a breather after more than a week of steady gains. The S&P 500 was near flat at -0.02%, the Dow lost 14 points or 0.13% and the Nasdaq added 0.25%.
"There aren't a lot of people who want to make big bets one way or the other," a U.S. senior portfolio manager told Bloomberg. "The market is looking for a catalyst and you have a lot of potentially positive and negative ones out there. It's a tough situation for forecasters."
Financial shares were lifted by news that heavyweight insurer American International Group will sell one of its foreign divisions to MetLife. It's the second major divestment that AIG has made this month as it sheds assets to repay bailout money it took during the credit crisis.
Tech stocks were boosted by an analyst upgrade for Blackberry-maker RIM and a promise from Cisco of a "significant announcement" tonight. McDonalds rallied 2.6% after beating expectations with a 4.8% rise in sales in February.
Health insurers came under pressure as President Obama embarked on a road trip to rally public support for his health-care plan. Market observers fear changes to health care legislation will undermine the insurers' ability to maintain returns.
Crude oil futures fell in early trade in the U.S. but recovered as the session wore on to trade recently at $81.74 a barrel, up 0.3%.
Gold faded off last week's six-week high as the U.S. dollar pared early losses. The spot price was recently trading at $1,121.70 an ounce, down $12.70 or about 1.2% on Friday's New York close.
Industrial metals were mixed in thin trade after last week's strong advances. In London, copper slipped 1% and nickel was down 0.65%, aluminium was flat, lead rallied 1.1%, tin +0.3% and zinc +0.9%.
The major European markets were little changed after a choppy session. Britain's FTSE rallied 0.12%, Germany's DAX was flat at -0.02% and France's CAC dipped 0.18%.
TRADING THEMES TODAY
CONSOLIDATION: Global markets are due a breather to consolidate the heady advances made over the last week and a half. If we're lucky, there will be nothing worse than a day or two of sideways action. However, a modest pullback is also likely after this long unbroken run of winning sessions. There's little scheduled in the U.S. tonight to provide direction, so we may have to wait until the second half of the week for momentum. All this carries the caveat that market-moving news can come out of left field at any time.
ECONOMIC NEWS: ANZ's February job ads at 11.30 am provide a foretaste of Thursday's employment numbers. Also at 11.30 today, NAB's monthly business confidence survey is a leading indicator of economic health. It's a relatively quiet night in the U.S., with consumer confidence the main event.
