Day trading pre-market open November 29

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

Outlook for the day: Positive ahead of inflation data that could move the needle towards, or away from, additional rate hikes.

ASX futures: up 15 points or 0.21%

Overnight themes:

US stocks nudge higher after a leading central banker suggests rates are on hold for now and could start to come down within months.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller says he is "increasingly confident" that current policy settings will "slow the economy and get inflation back to 2%". If inflation continues to decline "for several more months... three months, four months, five months... we could start lowering the policy rate just because inflation is lower," he added. The Fed next meets on December 12-13.

Rate-sensitive sectors rise as treasury yields and the US dollar retreat. Consumer stocks, real estate and utilities lead the advance. Health is the only major decliner, shedding 0.5%.

"The short-term trend has been an up market, so unless we get information that's really negative or unexpected, investors are going to continue to buy stocks" - Chuck Carlson, CEO at Horizon Investment Services.

Consumer confidence improves this month despite evidence that most Americans expect a recession. The Conference Board's confidence index rises to 102 from 99.1 last month, beating expectations.

Nickel has its best session in at least two months following reports that leading producer Indonesia will change the way it prices the metal. A government official says Indonesia will set up a new nickel price index to reflect the type of nickel of Class 2 nickel increasingly produced in Indonesia. Three-month nickel jumps 4.4% on the London Metal Exchange. (LME nickel is Class 1 only, according to Reuters.)

Gold surges to a six-month high as treasury yields and the US dollar retreat amid increased expectations the Fed could cut interest rates as soon as next year. US gold miners rally strongly. Gold for February delivery settles US$27.20 ahead at US$20,060.20. The Australian dollar rallies to its highest in almost four months. Silver, copper and most other metals also rise.

Iron ore suffers its biggest hit in more than a month as Chinese regulators again intervenes in the market. Prices on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange drop 2.6% after the state planner conducts a survey on price movements.

"Borrowing a wrestling term, we are now witnessing high-frequency smackdowns by the Chinese authorities as they intervene in the market for the fourth time in the last seven days" - Atilla Widnell, managing director at Navigate Commodities.

Key events today:

October inflation report (CPI) - 11.30 am AEDT

Q1 construction work - 11.30 am

US preliminary GDP - tonight

S&P 500: up 4 points or 0.1%

Dow: up 84 points or 0.24%

Nasdaq: up 41 points or 0.29%

Dollar: up 0.47% to 66.44 US cents

Iron ore (Dalian): down 2.36% to US$132.96

Brent crude: up US$1.70 or 2.13% to US$81.68

Gold: up US$27.20 or 1.34% to US$2,060.20

NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: up 4.44%

Bitcoin: up 2.1% to US$37,840

Copper (LME): up 1.04% to US$8,451

Nickel (LME): up 4.4% to US$16,730

Uranium: steady at US$81.25

Lithium carbonate (China spot): down 1.48% to US$18,650

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: up 1.15%

BHP: up 0.54% (US); down 0.43% (UK)

Rio Tinto: up 0.56% (US); down 0.55% (UK)