Day trading pre-market open March 26

Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome.


Outlook for the day: Negative. The share market's push towards record levels looks to be on hold today following modest losses on Wall Street. The ASX 200 briefly rallied to within ten points of an all-time high yesterday.

ASX futures: down 29 points or 0.37%


Overnight themes:

• US stocks retrace from record levels following the market's best week this year. The major benchmarks lose between 0.27% and 0.41% overnight.
• "It's a breather, the market has held really well, so people are waiting, there’s a lot of people waiting for that pullback."- Joe Saluzzi, partner, co-founder and co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading (per Reuters).
• Notable market drags overnight include Intel - down 1.74% on reports China will ban its chips on government computing hardware - and United Airlines - down 3.4% after a series of safety-related incidents prompt the US regulator to increase supervision of the airline.
• A management shake-up lifts troubled aircraft-maker Boeing 1.36%. A broker upgrade lifts Disney 3.01%.
• Energy is the best of the sectors, gaining 0.91% as oil advances. Also finishing higher are utilities +0.46% and materials +0.03%. The night's biggest drags are industrials -0.68%, tech -0.52% and real estate -0.42%.
• A report overnight shows sales of family homes unexpectedly declined 0.3% last month, but only after January sales were revised higher.
• The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all gained at least 2% last week after the Federal Reserve reassured investors it still anticipated three interest rate cuts this year. The odds on a June cut climb to 71.9%.
• Market confidence in the rates outlook may be tested once again by inflation data on Good Friday, but any reaction will have to wait for Wall Street to reopen on Monday. (Wall Street does not take Easter Monday as a holiday).

Key events today:

• March consumer confidence - 10.30 am AEDT
• US consumer confidence, durable goods - tonight

S&P 500: down 16 points or 0.31%

Dow: down 162 points or 0.41%

Nasdaq: down 44 points or 0.27%

Dollar: up 0.36% to 65.38 US cents

Iron ore (Dalian): up 0.3% to US$116.91

Brent crude: up US$1.32 or 1.6% to US$86.75

Gold: up US$16.40 or 0.8% to US$2,176.40

NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: up 0.61%

Bitcoin: up 7.37% to US$70,860

Copper (LME): down 0.04% to US$8,863

Nickel (LME): down 0.73% to US$17,025

Uranium (spot price): up 0.56% to US$91

Lithium carbonate (China spot): down 0.81% to US$15,484

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: down 1.06%

BHP: down 0.15% (US); down 0.44% (UK)

Rio Tinto: up 0.65% (US); up 0.32% (UK)