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

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


Outlook for the day: Positive for the first time in four sessions as a Wall Street rebound offsets another soggy session for commodity prices.

ASX futures: up 55 points or 0.7%


Overnight themes:

• A rebound in megacap tech stocks helped the Nasdaq and S&P 500 recoup some losses following their worst week since April. The Dow also rallied.
• The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.58% as Nvidia bounced 4.76%. Alphabet and Meta both gained more than 2%. Alphabet and Tesla report Q2 earnings tonight.
• The S&P 500 climbed 1.08% to its biggest gain since the first week of June. The Dow edged up 0.32%.
• Growth stocks led the rebound after struggling in recent weeks as this year's rally broadened from the megacap tech leaders to small caps and value stocks. The S&P tech sector surged 1.96%.
• “We’re seeing a rotation back into the technology sector after a pretty meaningful sell-off, exacerbated by the CrowdStrike meltdown” - Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones (per CNBC).
• CrowdStrike was pummelled for a second session in the wake of last week's global tech glitch. Stock in the cybersecurity firm tumbled 13.46% following a wave of downgrades. Stock in the company dived 11.1% on Friday after a faulty software upgrade caused Microsoft's Windows operating system to crash, affecting multiple industries around the globe.
• Small caps trimmed three days of losses. The Russell 2000 index rallied 1.66%.
• Nine out of eleven S&P sectors rallied. Industrials, real estate and utilities all gained at least 0.87%. Energy and consumer staples were the two sectors that sat out the rally.
• Copper and aluminium fell to their lowest since early April after China's Third Plenum ended without significant new measures to support the property sector. Copper sank 0.79%, extending its decline since its May record to 16%. Aluminium dropped 1.68%. Nickel and other base metals also fell.
• "Without further stimulus measures, there is little hope for a near-term recovery for the property and construction sector. We expect copper and other industrial metals prices to decline further in the near term to reflect a softer demand outlook in China" - ING commodities analyst Ewa Manthey (per Reuters).
• BHP and Rio Tinto shrugged off another downleg in iron ore. Both miners rose in US trade overnight despite a 0.31% drop in benchmark ore prices in China yesterday as a cut to lending rates failed to offset disappointment that the Third Plenum did not deliver new policy to help property prices.
• "The Third Plenum brought together China's leaders to map out the general direction of the country's long-term social and economic policies. But little was done to rectify weak economic growth" - ANZ analysts (per Reuters).
• Oil eased to its weakest level in around six weeks. Brent crude dropped 0.3% to US$82.40 a barrel, a price last seen on June 11.

Key events today:

• US home sales - tonight
• Trading updates from Alphabet and Tesla - tonight

S&P 500: up 59 points or 1.08%

Dow: up 128 points or 0.32%

Nasdaq: up 281 points or 1.58%

Dollar: down 0.8% to 66.42 US cents

Iron ore (Dalian): down 0.22% to US$109.79

Brent crude: down 23 US cents or 0.28% to US$82.40

Gold: down US$4.40 or 0.18% to US$2,394.70

Silver: up 2 US cents or 0.07% to US$29.32

NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: up 0.27%

Bitcoin: up 0.12% to US$67,883

Copper (LME): down 0.79% to US$9,236.50

Nickel (LME): down 0.37% to US$16,180

Lithium carbonate (China futures): steady

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: up 0.2%

Uranium (spot): steady at US$84.25

BHP: up 0.18% (US); steady (UK)

Rio Tinto: up 0.33% (US); up 0.58% (UK)