Morning All
Thanks Trees and regulars
SPI futures are 31 points firmer after a huge 2.1% rally in the US on Friday.
The ASX looks to advance but pressure on commodity prices from weak Chinese demand looks to contain any strong gains.
The S&P 500 rallied 2.1 percent Friday to eke a slight gain for the week, the ninth up week out of the last 10, after the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in November in a show of the economy's resilience.
The data likely paved the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this month for the first time in nearly a decade, while still keeping the U.S. central bank committed to a shallow and slow pace of increases.
"The story today in the U.S. is growth with modest inflation, which is great for equities," said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer, multi-asset strategies and solutions at Voya Investment Management in New York.
"I see nothing on the calendar outside a geopolitical event that is going to make them (the Fed) change course at this point," he said.
Technology and financial shares paced Friday's advance, with Apple, Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase & Co all rising more than 3.1 per cent, to cap a whipsaw week of trading that drove the benchmark index to moves of more than 1 per cent in four straight sessions.
Friday's rally began after a report showed a larger-than-forecast 211,000 increase in November US payrolls, following a 298,000 gain a month earlier that was bigger than previously estimated. The jobless rate held at 5 per cent, a more than seven-year low.
Stocks extended gains in afternoon trading after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said the bank has the power to act to the extent it sees necessary to defend its inflation mandate, and is willing to use it. His comments came a day after the ECB unveiled stimulus measures that disappointed investors, sparking a selloff in Europe that spread to the US.
Earlier in Europe markets were down as Mario Draghi defended the European Central Bank's expansion of its stimulus program a day after investors panned it, while saying further action can be taken if needed. The euro fell. The combination of measures "was not a package meant to address market expectations," the ECB president said at an event in New York on Friday. "It was meant to address the reaching of our objectives."
Euro STOXX -.4%
FTSE -.55%
The House of Pain
Copper, aluminium and other base metals climbed on Friday on short covering. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange closed 1.2 per cent higher at $US4612 a tonne. Aluminium jumped 2.8 per cent to finish at $US1514.50 a tonne after touching $US1523.50, the strongest in a week.
Gold has finished the week on a strong note, ending a six-week losing streak and bouncing off a fresh 5 and-a-half year low.Gold’s rally started in earnest Friday, following the release of November’s nonfarm payrolls report, which was relatively in line with expectations. The data showed that 211,000 jobs were created in November with consensus forecast calling for job gains of around 200,000. At the same time, October’s already red-hot labor market report was revised up to 298,000 jobs.
Comex February gold futures ended Friday’s session up 2.3% on the day and 2.6% for the week, settling at $1,086 an ounce.
Gold’s rally also managed to support other precious metals, with silver prices ending the week at $14.528 an ounce, a gain of 3.6%.
HUI 121.44 +7.12
Adding to the strong jobs data as a bullish stocks catalyst, crude prices resumed their fall after news that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was planning to maintain its production near record highs despite already depressed prices.
"The headwind of falling oil in 2015 in terms of earnings will become a tailwind in 2016," said Steve Chiavarone, associate portfolio manager at Federated Investors in New York, pointing to the benefits of lower oil prices for main street.
Oil $40.14 -2.5%
Iron ore prices for immediate delivery to China's Tianjin port dropped 2.2 per cent to $US39.40 a tonne, the lowest ever recorded by price assessor The Steel Index (TSI), which began compiling data in 2008. Prior to TSI's records and ahead of the spot-based system that followed the annual pricing era, it was the weakest since 2005, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs. Iron ore prices fell 7.4 per cent for the week, their steepest slide since declining almost 8 per cent in early July.
What's on today
ANZ job advertisements;
US labour market conditions, consumer credit
Have a good day
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