daytrade diaries... november 11

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Local stocks look set to open higher for the fourth straight day despite a mixed night on Wall Street.

Futures traders have priced in a modestly positive start to Australian trade. The SPI closed 21 points higher at 4755.

Wall Street struggled for direction during a session without any major economic news releases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched to a fifth day of gains, up 0.2% at 10,247, but the S&P 500 ended near flat at -0.01% and the Nasdaq slid 0.14%.

News that a financial guarantor may have trouble paying off debt due in 2011 and could file for bankruptcy sent financial stocks lower. The S&P Bank Index lost 1.23%. Airlines and REITs were also marginally softer but gold/silver miners, oilers and biotechs squeezed out narrow gains.

The major European markets swung in and out of positive territory before closing little changed. Britain’s FTSE slipped 0.09%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.12% and France’s CAC closed flat.

Worries over the UK's credit rating helped gold futures inch higher. A warning from a ratings agency that the UK is most at risk of losing its AAA sovereign credit rating helped the spot gold price add more than $2 to trade recently at $1105.10 an ounce. Crude oil futures slipped as the US dollar traded higher and the threat of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico faded. However, crude clawed back some losses to trade recently less than 0.5% lower at $79.14 a barrel.

Most base metals continued to drift sideways but nickel skidded to a seven week-low on concern that stainless steel mills are cutting back production. In London, aluminium rose 0.15%, nickel lost 3.9%, copper -0.23%, lead -1.04%, tin -0.34% and zinc -0.23%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

CHINA: In the absence of a strong lead from the US, our market will seek direction in a swag of Chinese economic data due to be released today at 1 pm. Rather than drip-feed information to the market, the Chinese dump their monthly figures all at once. Industrial production is the key figure for our miners - economists are looking for year-on-year growth of around 15.3%. Also due: CPI, PPI, trade balance and retail sales.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Consumer confidence figures are due at 10.30 am and September lending finance at 11.30 am. It's the Veterans Day bank holiday in the US tonight - markets are open but no significant economic news releases are planned.

Good luck to all.