Day trading pre-market open July 19

Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially Hall of Famers @Ravgnome and @Patterns.

Outlook for the day: Positive following solid gains for US stocks and rebounds in major commodities.

ASX futures: up 39 points or 0.54%

Overnight themes:

• Wall Street's main indices close at 15-month highs as a new earnings season maintains a strong start. The Dow seals its longest winning run since March 2021 with a seventh straight rise.
• Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon all gain at least 4% after beating earnings expectations.
• "This morning all the banks reported, all beat earnings expectations and all except PNC Financial beat revenue expectations" - Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder.
• The S&P 500 banks index rallies 1.9%. The KBW regional banking index rises 4.1% to its highest since March.
• Weak retail sales data alleviates pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise rates this month. June sales increase by a tepid 0.2%, versus analyst expectations for stronger growth of 0.5%.
• “Americans have gotten relief at the gas pump, but also don’t have an excessive demand for consumer goods. This is modestly positive news for investors worried about the Fed needing to hike after July. Goldilocks marches on” - David Russell, vice president of market intelligence at TradeStation.
• Tech outperforms, rising 1.26% as Microsoft hits an all-time high. Also strong: financials, energy and materials. Real estate, utilities and consumer staples retreat.
• Gold closes at its highest in six weeks as hopes for a top in the current rates cycle depress the US dollar and treasury yields. The US dollar index has declined around 2.8% this month.

Key events today:

• US housing starts, building permits - tonight
  

S&P 500: up 32 points or 0.71%

Dow: up 367 points or 1.06%

Nasdaq: up 109 points or 0.76%

Dollar: up 0.02% to 68.11 US cents

Iron ore (Dalian): up 0.66% to US$117.83

Brent crude: up US$1.13 or 1.4% to US$79.63

Gold: up US$24.40 or 1.3% to US$1,980.80 (6-week high)

NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: up 1.76% (8-week high)

Copper (LME): down 0.35% to US$8,461.50

Nickel (LME): up 1.48% to US$21,190

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: up 0.46%

BHP: up 0.29% (US); up 0.71% (UK)

Rio Tinto: down 0.24% (US); up 0.47% (UK)