daytrading april 30 pre-market

Morning traders. Thanks Trees.

Market wrap:

Shares are set to recoup some of yesterday's losses at today's open following a second night of gains on Wall Street.

The June SPI 200 futures contract bounced 19 points or 0.4% to 5496 as market heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto rallied in US trade.

US stocks shrugged off economic disappointments as corporate earnings continued to exceed analyst expectations and beaten-up growth stocks attracted buyers. The S&P 500 rallied nine points or 0.46%, the Dow 86 points or 0.52% and the Nasdaq resumed its leadership role, rising 30 points or 0.73%.

"Overall, earnings have been much higher than expected, beating vastly lowered expectations," Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer of Multi-Asset Strategies at ING US Investment Management, told MarketWatch. "After the sell-offs in the momentum stocks, markets are much more balanced now and we are in a place where fundamentals are driving the markets."

Merck and Sprint were among companies seeing gains overnight following quarterly reports. Overall, earnings for S&P 500 companies that have reported this season have improved by 3.4%, versus a pre-season expectation of growth of 0.7%.

Less positively, shares in Twitter and EBay both dived in after-market trade after releasing poorly-received earnings following the close of regular trade this morning. Twitter was lately off 9.55% and EBay 3.36%.

The market overcame news of a mild deterioration in consumer confidence and flattening house prices. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index dropped to 82.3 this month from a revised 83.9 in March. Economists had anticipated a reading at around 83.3 this month. House prices were unchanged in February as the market continues to show signs of cooling.

Australia's biggest miners rallied in US trade as the steep decline in the price of iron ore tapered yesterday. BHP rallied 0.57% and Rio Tinto put on 0.75%. Spot iron ore for import to China yesterday dipped 30 cents to US$108.30 a dry tonne.

Gold retreated for a second session ahead of tonight's US Federal Reserve statement on monetary policy and as tensions eased in the Ukraine. Russia's Defence Minister claimed overnight that Russian troops massed along the Ukrainian border had been recalled to barracks. Gold for June delivery was lately off $2.90 or 0.2% at US$1,296.10 an ounce after settling at US$1,296.30.

Oil had a run at the US$102 a barrel level but gains dissipated as the session advanced. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for June delivery was lately off three cents or less than 0.1% at US$100.81 a barrel after settling at US$101.28.

Base metals lost ground as traders bet that the US Federal Reserve will tonight announce a further reduction in stimulus spending. US copper for May delivery was recently down 0.6% or about two cents at US$3.08 a pound. In London, copper slid 0.45%, aluminium 0.8%, lead 1.2%, nickel 0.1%, tin 1.7% and zinc 0.5%.

European stocks advanced for a second night, supported by solid earnings from the likes of Nokia and Deutsche Bank. The Stoxx Europe 600 index rallied 1.19% as Germany's DAX put on 1.46%, France's CAC 0.84% and Britain's FTSE 1.04%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

FRONT FOOT: The ASX was due a breather following a seven-session rally and took one yesterday. Barring black swans, the up-trend looks likely to resume today with the big miners leading the way. Wall Street is muddling through a mixed earnings season towards the old highs. Those after-market results from Twitter and EBay are a sentiment-dampener, but tonight's US action will likely be all about the Fed and the quarterly GDP report, so they may not matter. Biotechs bounced 2.68% on the Nasdaq and NYSE gold stocks rallied 1.48%.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Monthly private-sector credit figures are due at 11.3am EST. A busy night ahead in the US includes advance quarterly GDP and GDP price index, Chicago PMI, employment cost index, crude oil inventories, and the Federal Reserve funds rate and policy statement.

Good luck to all.