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

Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome.


Outlook for the day: Mildly negative following strong gains yesterday and modest gains on Wall Street ahead of a market holiday tonight.

ASX futures: down 8 points or 0.1%


Overnight themes:

• US stocks edged to fresh heights in tepid pre-holiday trade as a record for Nvidia helped offset disappointing retail sales.
• The S&P 500 gained 0.25% as AI chip-maker Nvidia overhauled Microsoft as the US's most valuable company.
• The Nasdaq inched up 0.03%, joining the S&P 500 at a new closing high. The Dow firmed 0.15%.
• Nvidia overtook Microsoft with a rise of 3.51% to expand its market cap to US$3.22 trillion. The chip-maker has gained 174% so far this year. Other semiconductor stocks also rose, lifting the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index to an all-time high.
• The odds on two interest rate cuts this year rose after retail sales expanded an anaemic 0.1% last month, well short of the 0.3% growth forecast by economists. Adding to worries about the health of the consumer, April data was revised down to a 0.2% contraction in sales. March figures were also revised lower.
• "Maybe households aren't quite as impervious to higher interest rates as we were beginning to believe... We don't expect a full-blown slump in consumption but, at the margin, even a modest slowdown in consumption growth and consequently GDP growth too could be enough to tip a finely balanced Fed in favor of a rate cut in September" - Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics (per Reuters).
• Economic worries were partly alleviated by positive news on manufacturing. Output increased 0.9% last month, reversing a 0.4% decline in April.
• Financial stocks and tech companies offered the night's best returns. The financial sector gained 0.64%, tech 0.61% and industrials 0.55%.
• The night's drags included three sectors: communication services -0.77%, consumer discretionary -0.42% and materials -0.12%.
• Oil climbed to its highest since late April as buyers looked ahead to the US holiday driving season. Brent crude rallied US$1.08 or 1.28% to US$85.33 a barrel.
• Iron ore fluctuated before inching up 0.24% in daytime trade in China. Price action was choppy following reports of authorities in Fujian holding meetings with steel-makers to discuss production caps relating to emissions.
• Copper bounced off a two-month low as the US dollar reacted to soft retail sales data. Benchmark copper gained 0.55% in London.

Key events today:

• US markets closed tonight (Juneteenth public holiday)

S&P 500: up 14 points or 0.25%

Dow: up 57 points or 0.15%

Nasdaq: up 5 points or 0.03%

Dollar: up 0.58% to 66.56 US cents

Iron ore (Dalian): up 0.24% to US$113.11

Brent crude: up US$1.08 or 1.28% to US$85.33

Natural gas (US futures): up 4.14% to US$2.90

Gold: US$17.90 or 0.77% to US$2,346.90

Silver: up 4 US cents or 0.15% to US$29.54

NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: up 1.5%

Bitcoin: down 2.17% to US$64,940

Copper (LME): up 0.55% to US$9,719

Nickel (LME): down 0.46% to US$17,350

Uranium (spot price): up 0.58% to US$87

Lithium carbonate (China spot): down 0.31% to US$13,368

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: up 0.44%

BHP: up 0.73% (US); up 0.86% (UK)

Rio Tinto: up 0.41% (US); up 0.52% (UK)