daytrade diaries... july 9

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Another big slide in commodity prices will weigh on Australian shares today after a flat night on Wall St.

But the market may take heart from a better-than-expected earnings report from Alcoa released after US markets closed this morning. Dow futures turned higher after the aluminium giant beat analysts' expectations, despite warning of weak demand as it reported its third straight quarterly loss. Alcoa shares surged 6.5% in after-hours trading. Dow futures were recently up 13 points.

Earlier, US share indexes dipped in and out of positive territory before finishing mixed. The Dow Jones index gained 0.18%, the Nasdaq gained 0.06% and the S&P 500 lost 1 point or 0.17%. Miners, oilers and banks were all in the red, while traditional defensives such as consumer stocks and pharmaceuticals advanced.

Commodity markets remained under pressure. Analysts said the CRB index, a benchmark for measuring commodity prices, breached a key support level overnight, falling below its four-month trend line. Crude futures slumped more than 4.5% to $60.18 after a smaller-than-expected drop in US crude inventories and a bigger-than-expected gain in petroleum-product stockpiles.

Gold futures fell 2% to a two-month low, recently trading at $908.70. In another grim night for base metals, copper prices fell for a fifth day in UK trade, its longest losing run this month. Copper fell 3.2%, aluminum 4.2%, tin 6%, nickel 4.5%, lead 3% and zinc 4%.

With 15 minutes left to trade, futures traders had the SPI down 5 points at 3713.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

TURNING POINT? Is the Alcoa result good enough to turn market sentiment around this morning? At time of writing, the jury was still out. Yesterday afternoon's action on our market suggested there are buyers waiting in the wings for a sign that this pullback has gone on long enough. If the Dow futures run, expect our market to follow. Track Dow futures here: http://liveindices.com/

COMMODITY ROUT: It was a horrible night on commodity markets. Look out below. If you're not short-selling, wait for bounce opportunities at support levels, eg, MRE yesterday.