Morning traders. Good to back. Thanks heaps to the champions who stepped in last week during my absence: @LeftyPenko, @just browsing and @Helsyd. Great effort, team! Seemed to run like clockwork? Awesome. (Let me know if any of you want a full-time job. I don't want to hog the ball if anyone is keen to step up?)
Outlook for the day: Neutral following four days of strong gains and a mixed finish on Wall Street on Friday.
ASX futures: down two points or 0.03%
Fridaythemes:
· Wall Street's week-long rally loses momentum as a new earnings season gets underway in earnest with reports from several big banks.
· Strong results from UnitedHealth and JPMorgan Chase lift the Dow to a fifth straight gain.
· The S&P 500 and Nasdaq touch their highest levels since April 2022 before fading into the red. Netflix, Intel and Meta weigh.
· Wells Fargo, Citigroup and BlackRock fall after quarterly trading updates.
· At a sector level, healthcare, consumer staples and consumer discretionary rise, while the rest of the market retreats. Energy and financials are the biggest drags.
· For the week, the Dow gains 2.3%, the S&P 500 2.4% and the Nasdaq 3.3%.
· "What we're seeing now and are likely to continue to see through the end of the summer is a little bit of fatigue and lack of conviction that stocks can go materially higher" - Oliver Pursche, senior vice president and advisor, Wealthspire Advisors.
Key events this week:
· China GDP, factory activity, retail sales - 12 pm AEST
· Minutes from this month's RBA policy meeting - tomorrow
· US retail sales - tomorrow
· June jobs report - Thursday
S&P 500: down five points or 0.1%
Dow: up 114 points or 0.33%
Nasdaq: down 25 points or 0.18%
Dollar: up 0.01% to 68.38 US cents
Iron ore (Dalian): up 2.54% to US$119.02
Brent crude: down US$1.49 or 1.8% to US$79.87 (weekly gain: 1.8%)
Gold: up 60 US cents or 0.1% to US$1,964.40 (weekly gain: 1.7%, best since April)
NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: down 0.66%
Copper (LME): down 0.03% to US$8,671
Nickel (LME): down 1.64% to US$21,275
Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: down 1.31% (from 5-month high)
BHP: down 0.37% (US); up 0.15% (UK)
Rio Tinto: down 0.7% (US); down 0.31% (UK)
