Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome. Outlook...

Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome.


Outlook for the day: Positive as commodity price gains help offset a mid-session fade on Wall Street.

ASX futures: up 20 points or 0.26%


Overnight themes:

• US stocks finish mixed and off intraday highs after reversing direction mid-session. The reversal comes after the Dow and S&P 500 hit all-time highs and the Nasdaq briefly trades above its November 2021 closing peak.
• The Nasdaq and S&P 500 finish lower. The Dow clings on for a gain of 0.26% as Intel and Goldman Sachs help offset declines in Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce.
• Stocks are coming off five straight weeks of gains. The S&P 500 has risen more than 5% since the start of the year.
• The market succumbs to "a little bit of profit taking” overnight, according to James Ragan, director of wealth research at D.A. Davidson (per MarketWatch).
• The selling pressure precedes January consumer inflation data tonight that could delay (or accelerate) the likely start of rate cuts this year.
• “The [Federal Reserve] continues to look forward to rate cuts to offset an expected tightening of financial conditions as inflation returns to 2%, but the timing and magnitude remain elusive given the strength of the economy and lingering uncertainty over the path of inflation” - Tim Duy, chief US economist at SGH Macro Advisors (per MarketWatch).
• Tech stocks are the biggest drag, falling 0.77%. Also weak: real estate -0.37%, consumer discretionary -0.28% and communication services -0.18%.
• The energy sector gains 1.05% after Diamondback Energy announces a US$26 billion deal to buy Endeavor Energy. Also strong are utilities +1.14%, materials +0.73% and financials +0.42%.
• Small caps outperform. The Russell 2000 pops 1.93%.
• Bitcoin trades above US$50,000 a coin for the first time since December 2021. The price of a coin reaches US$50,314 overnight, according to MarketWatch, before paring its advance to US$50,188 in recent action, a gain of more than 3.5%. Prices have surged in recent weeks as Wall Street demand for ETFs reportedly outweighs production.

Key events today:

• Earnings season: CSL, James Hardie, Seven West, Seek, Challenger, Breville, Temple & Webster, Charter Hall Social Infrastructure (source: CommSec).
• Consumer sentiment - 10.30 am AEDT
• Business confidence - 11.30 am
• US January consumer inflation (CPI) - tonight

S&P 500: down 5 points or 0.09%

Dow: up 126 points or 0.33%

Nasdaq: down 48 points or 0.3%

Dollar: up 0.11% to 65.32 US cents

Iron ore (Singapore): up 0.1% to US$128.87

Brent crude: down 19 US cents or 0.23% to US$82

Gold: down US$5.70 or 0.3% to US$2,033

NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: up 1.37%

Bitcoin: up 3.6% to US$50,188

Copper (LME): up 1.08% to US$8,257.50

Nickel (LME): up 1.07% to US$16,085

Uranium (spot price): up 2.53% to US$105

Lithium carbonate (China spot): steady at US$13,471

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: up 1.65%

BHP: up 0.45% (US); up 0.57% (UK)

Rio Tinto: up 0.13% (US); up 0.21% (UK)