Day trading pre-market open July 17

Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome and @Patterns.


Outlook for the day: The share market looks set to recoup most of yesterday's 68.5-point dive following gains in US stocks, iron ore and gold.

ASX futures: up 53 points or 0.62%


Overnight themes:

• US stocks rose in volatile trade after President Donald Trump denied reports he planned to sack his central bank chief. Initial reports that Trump would axe Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell drove stocks sharply lower in late-morning trade as the US dollar dived and treasury yields jumped. The market quickly recovered as Trump hosed down the reports.
• The S&P 500 closed near a session high with a gain of 0.32%. The Dow swung from a low of -0.6% to a gain of 231 points or 0.53%. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.26% to its ninth record close this year.
• The session sparked into life when Bloomberg and CNBC quoted an unidentified official as saying Trump was likely to fire Fed Chair Powell. The New York Times claimed Trump had shown Republican allies a draft letter firing Powell. The president has been a persistent critic of the head of the central bank, attacking Powell several days each week for not lowering official rates. The Dow slumped as much as 0.6% before Trump quickly intervened to deny the reports. “No, we’re not planning on doing it,” Trump said, adding that it was "highly unlikely" he would sack Powell "unless he has to leave for fraud". Republicans have recently criticised the Fed for cost over-runs on a renovation of the central bank's HQ in Washington, however there has been no confirmed evidence of fraud.
• Wall Street's "fear gauge', the VIX or volatility index, hit a three-week high before retreating.
• "The Fed's independence is hugely important to our overall economy, so you saw the market react when that initial headline came out," Dylan Bell, chief investment officer at CalBay Investments, told Reuters.
• “The markets would not like it if Powell was fired,” Larry Tentarelli, founder of the Blue Chip Daily Trend Report, told CNBC. “It’s obviously a political hotbed… but overall, most of the big market participants that I know of think Powell has done a very good job.”
• The night's key economic report, the producer price index, showed wholesale inflation was steady last month as a tariff-fuelled increase in costs was offset by a decline in the cost of services.
• The second night of earnings season delivered gains of 6.19% for Johnson & Johnson and 0.9% for Goldman Sachs, and declines of 0.26% for Bank of America and 1.27% for Morgan Stanley.
• Health +1.22% and real estate +1.07% were the best of the S&P sectors. Financials advanced 0.66%. Materials firmed 0.3%. Energy was the only significant drag, falling 0.84%.
• Iron ore's three-week-long rally continued with buyers encouraged by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's visit to Beijing with executives from the big three domestic ore exporters. China and Australia signed a "Policy Dialogue on Steel Decarbonisation" and agreed to review their existing free-trade agreement. Benchmark ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange climbed 1.05% to US$107.70 per metric ton.
• Gold trimmed strong early gains after Trump doused reports he planned to fire Fed Chair Powell. After earlier surging 1.6%, spot gold was lately up US$21.96 or 0.66% at US$3,346.96 an ounce. US gold futures settled US$22.40 or 0.7% higher at US$3,359.10. "Gold markets were whipsawed by the back and forth," Daniel Ghali, commodity strategist at TD Securities, told Reuters. "Headlines suggesting Trump was considering firing Powell drove gold prices higher... he later clarified it's highly unlikely."
• Copper prices continued to leak some of their recent gains on both sides of the Atlantic. Overnight, US copper futures declined 1.18% to US$5.5115 a pound, trading near their lowest in a week. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange eased less than 0.1% to $US9,637 per metric ton, pressured by a rise in inventories once the announcement of a US tariff scuttled traders' plans to ship to the US before the tariff came into force. "There hasn't been any additional supply disruption to push prices higher across the various exchanges," WisdomTree commodities strategist Nitesh Shah told Reuters. Other metals on the LME also declined.

Key events today:

• June employment report - 11.30 am AEST (expected: +21,000 new jobs; jobless rate steady at 4.1%)
• Q4 business confidence - 11.30 am
• US retail sales - tonight
• US earnings season (Netflix) - tonight

S&P 500: up 20 points or 0.32%

Dow: up 231 points or 0.53%

Nasdaq: up 53 points or 0.25%

VIX: down 1.27% to 17.16

US 10-year treasury yield: down 2.5 points to 4.463%

Dollar: up 0.19% to 65.31 US cents

Iron ore (Dalian): up 1.05% to US$107.70

Brent crude: down 19 US cents or 0.28% to US$68.52

Gold (futures): up US$22.40 or 0.7% to US$3,359.10

Gold (spot): up US$21.96 or 0.66% to US$3,346.96

Silver (spot): up 20 US cents or 0.53% to US$37.90

Palladium (spot): up US$48 or 3.86% to US$1,291

Antimony (China ore): down 0.1% to US$19,795

NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: up 0.33%

Bitcoin: up 2.82% to US$119,901

Copper (LME): down 0.09% to US$9,637

Nickel (LME): down 1.57% to US$14,976

Lithium carbonate (China spot battery grade): down 0.02% to 7,986 yuan

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: down 0.53%

Uranium (spot): down 0.18% to US$71.88

Global X Uranium ETF (URA): up 2.07%

BHP: up 1.59% (US); up 0.53% (UK)

Rio Tinto: up 2.14% (US); up 1.21% (UK)