daytrading may 15 pre-market

Morning traders. Mini-wrap today:

Market wrap:

Record closes on Wall Street have Australian shares aiming for a fresh 58-month high this morning despite further weakness in oil and metals.

With 50 minutes of the night session left to trade, the June SPI 200 futures contract was ahead 31 points or 0.6% at 5256 after a broad rally boosted the S&P 500 to its eighth record peak in nine sessions.

All 10 industry groups advanced as the S&P 500 rallied 16 points or 0.99% to 1,650. The Dow added 123 points or 0.82% and the Nasdaq put on 0.7%.

"There's an encouraging pattern of continued growth in the economic data," a senior strategist at RidgeWorth Capital Management in the US told Bloomberg. "What is helping the market is the belief that downside risks to stocks are limited right now."

Financials led the rally in the US and will likely have to repeat that feat if the Australian market is to kick higher as strength in the US dollar continues to cap commodity prices.

Gold fell for a fourth night to its lowest level in nearly three weeks. Gold for June delivery dropped $9.80 or 0.7% to settle at US$1,424.50 an ounce.

Oil was briefly pushed back below US$94 a barrel after the International Energy Agency warned that record North American oil production was affecting the price outlook. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for June delivery retreated 96 cents or 1% to settle at US$94.21 a barrel.

Monday's weak Chinese factory data caught up with base metals, sending copper to its biggest fall in two weeks. US copper for July delivery was recently down seven cents or 2.1% at US$3.29 a pound. In late trade in London, copper was off 2.4%, aluminium 0.5%, lead 1.4%, nickel 1.2% and zinc 0.9%.

European markets resumed their recent rallies. Germany's DAX advanced 0.72%, France's CAC 0.53% and Britain's FTSE 0.82%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

BUDGET FALL-OUT: A bright open lies ahead and then another a test of our market's ability to hold its gains, something it has struggled to do lately. There should be stock-specific opportunities, both long and short, arising from last night's Federal budget. The big banks will likely have to drive the advance after further declines in oil and metals.

ECONOMIC NEWS: The wage price index and motor vehicle sales are due at 11.30am EST. Europe has GDP figures scheduled tonight. Highlights in the US are: producer price index/core PPI, Empire State Manufacturing Index, long-term purchases, industrial production, crude oil inventories, housing market index and capacity utilisation rate.

Good luck to all.