daytrades march 19 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Shares are likely to open higher for a fourth day after modest gains on Wall Street overnight, but softer commodity prices will limit gains.

Futures traders expect our market to start today's session 8 points ahead after a choppy session in the U.S. The March SPI futures contract closed at 4887.

The blue chips in the Dow Jones Industrial Average have lagged this month's share rally but last night led the gains with a rise of 46 points or 0.42% for an eighth straight advance. The broader S&P 500 closed little changed at -0.03% and the Nasdaq was up 0.09%.

Investors were cheered by mostly benign economic data overnight but further doubts about Greece saw a resurgent U.S. dollar pressure commodity prices.

Consumer prices were unchanged last month, with the absence of inflationary pressures offering the Federal Reserve little reason to reassess record low interest rates in the U.S. People claiming unemployment benefits fell by 5,000 last week - the third straight drop - but analysts warned that the decline was too gradual to significantly reduce the grim jobless rate.

The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators climbed 0.1% last month, its 11th straight monthly rise.
Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region improved for a seventh straight month.

"The market needs to take a breather, but when you take a look at the underlying data that was out today, it's not bad, but it's not good enough to charge higher either," the managing director of a U.S. financial firm told MarketWatch.

The U.S. dollar index rallied 0.75% after further doubts about Greece's finances drove the euro and British pound lower. The Greek Composite Index tumbled 3.4% after Greece warned it will turn to the IMF if the European Union will not offer it standby loans.

Crude oil futures slid 1.1% to $82 a barrel as the rising greenback made the commodity more expensive for foreign buyers. One U.S. analyst quoted on MarketWatch said oil futures "are running ahead of fundamentals and remain disconnected from the physical market. The longing for real value can be the only rational explanation for rising oil prices."

The stronger dollar and evidence of monetary tightening in China saw most industrial metals close lower. In London, copper dipped 0.6%, aluminium 1.1%, lead 0.7%, tin 0.4% and zinc 1.3%. The exception was nickel, which rallied 1.8%, and remains the standout performer after a rise of 20% since the start of the year.

Gold has gone sideways for the last two sessions after bouncing hard off a support level earlier in the week. The spot price was recently $1,126.10 an ounce, up $1 or 0.1% from Wednesday's New York close.

Uncertainty about Greece and losses for key banks sent most European markets lower. Britain's FTSE closed little changed at -0.04%, Germany's DAX dropped 0.2% and France's CAC 0.5%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

GREEK TRAGEDY: Greece's debt problems remain a running sore. Any optimism that the situation was improving dissipated last night when the Greek Prime Minister lost patience with EU leaders and threatened to tap the International Monetary Fund instead. "The EU has frustrated markets by not filling in the blanks of an assistance package now for weeks," wrote economists at Lloyds TSB. Why should we care? Because trouble in Europe pressures the euro, which in turn favours a stronger U.S. dollar and that generally means weaker commodity prices for our miners.

GATHERING PACE: Our market has at last shown some momentum, with volumes picking up and strong finishes to the last two sessions. Is a fourth positive finish within reach today? Possibly, but most of the big banks are at key resistance levels and it's hard to see the big miners kicking too high with that overnight lead from commodity markets. We may be in for the familiar Friday afternoon fade.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Nothing significant scheduled locally today or in the U.S. tonight.

Good luck to all.