Day trading pre-market open May 27

Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome.


Outlook for the day: Australian stocks look set to claw back some of last week's losses, mirroring a tech-led rebound on Wall Street that lifted the Nasdaq to a record.

ASX futures: up 47 points or 0.61%


Friday themes:

• US stocks rallied into a long weekend after data raised hopes that the economy might still pull off the market-friendly combination of a soft landing with interest rate cuts by year-end.
• The Nasdaq jumped 1.1% to a new closing high as Thursday's knock-out trading update from Nvidia continued to encourage buyers. The chip-maker reset its record with a rise of 2.57%.
• The S&P 500 firmed 0.7% as ten of eleven sectors rose.
• The Dow finished just above even as declines in healthcare giants UnitedHealth, Merck and Johnson & Johnson and weighed. Health was the session's only declining sector.
• Investors were cheered by a rebound in orders for US-made durable goods last month as business spending improved. Also helping sentiment was a drop in expectations for where inflation will be in a year, helping offset a dip in consumer sentiment to a five-month low.
• "This is a bounce where people are like maybe things aren't as bad as we thought, maybe there's room for the Fed to cut rates and the economy's going to be OK, and we're not completely falling apart" - Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management (per Reuters).
• Trading volumes were subdued by a US long weekend. Markets remain closed tonight for Memorial Day.
• The day's best returns came from communication services +1.29%, tech +1.13% and utilities +0.99%. The materials sector rallied 0.88%. Financials firmed 0.68%.
• Friday's rebound left the S&P 500 more or less flat for the week, up 0.03%. The Nasdaq outperformed thanks to Nvidia, gaining 1.41%. The Dow, which does not include Nvidia as a component, sank 2.34% across the week.
• Copper's retreat from record levels continued into a fourth session in London on Friday amid reports of high prices dampening Chinese buying interest. Benchmark prices on the London Metal Exchange declined 0.9% to US$10,324 a metric ton.
• "We have to accept that the latest [copper] rally has driven by financial investors, not by physical traders, in fact they've been selling into it, given the softness we're seeing in Chinese data, and that didn't improve at all this week" - Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank (per Reuters).
• Iron ore eased 0.44% in China at the end of a positive week. Benchmark ore prices gained 2.6% for the week on the Dalian Commodity Exchange after Beijing announced fresh support for its property market.

Key events this week:

• US Memorial Day public holiday - tonight
• Retail sales - Tuesday
• US consumer confidence - Tuesday
• Consumer Price Index - Wednesday
• Construction work - Wednesday
• Building approvals - Thursday
• Private capital expenditure - Thursday
• US GDP - Thursday
• US home sales - Thursday
• China manufacturing/services PMIs - Friday
• US inflation (PCE) - Friday

S&P 500: up 37 points or 0.7%

Dow: up 4 points or 0.01%

Nasdaq: up 185 points or 1.1%

Dollar: steady at 66.26 US cents

Iron ore (Dalian): down 0.44% to US$125.33

Brent crude: up 76 US cents or 0.93% to US$82.12

Natural gas (US futures): down 5.8% to US$2.50

Gold: down US$2.70 or 0.12% to US$2,334.50

Silver: up 19 US cents or 0.63% to US$30.35

NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: up 1.39%

Bitcoin: down 0.6% to US$68,702

Copper (LME): down 0.9% to US$10,324

Nickel (LME): up 0.83% to US$20,250

Uranium (spot price): down 0.27% to US$92.25

Lithium carbonate (China spot): steady at US$14,697

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: up 1%

BHP: up 1.5% (US); up 0.6% (UK)

Rio Tinto: up 0.6% (US); down 0.44% (UK)