Morning traders.Market wrap: A bounce in resources prices and...

Morning traders.

Market wrap: A bounce in resources prices and modest gains on Wall Street should provide some relief for our market today.

Upbeat global manufacturing and US construction data and a weak US dollar translated into overnight gains for U.S. equity indexes, oil, some base metals and gold. Wall Street surged early, faded into the red by early afternoon and then rallied through to the close. The Dow closed 0.79% higher, the S&P 500 added 0.65% and the Nasdaq 0.2%.

The market got off to a flier on news that the U.S. factory sector had its best month of expansion in October since 2006, pending sales of previously owned homes surged to the highest level since 2006, and construction spending unexpectedly increased in September.

Also helping sentiment was news that China's manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in 18 months during October and a European manufacturing measure came in at 50.7, breaching the neutral 50-level for the first time in 17 months. But the bankruptcy of lender CIT Group weighed on US financial shares and limited gains.

Sector gains and losses were modest during an uncertain session. The few standouts were biotechs at +2.92%, gold/silver miners +1.03% and banks after a late rally at +1.38%. The major European markets caught the early bounce in the US. Britain's FTSE rallied 1.19%, France's CAC 0.88% and Germany's DAX 0.29%.

Crude oil futures were boosted by the upbeat manufacturing data, rising more than 1.5% to trade recently at $78.16. Gold had a good night as the US dollar softened. The spot price put on more than $14 to trade recently at $1058.80.

Base metals remained range-bound but most managed modest advances. In London, copper rallied 1%, aluminium 0.52%, zinc 1.53% and tin 0.51%, while lead lost 0.43% and nickel 0.96%.

Futures traders expect our market to pull back a fraction of yesterday's losses at today's open. The SPI futures index closed 25 points higher at 4568.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

UNCERTAINTY: Wall Street recovered some of Friday's heavy losses but the bounce took two attempts to succeed and looked tentative and uncertain. There wasn't enough conviction in the buying to call this correction over, especially with unemployment numbers to come later in the week. There should be a modest rally in our market today but it's too early to go in hard or hold overnight with any confidence.

INTEREST RATES: Aside from the Melbourne Cup, the big focus today is interest rates. Will the RBA raise the cash rate for a second straight month? Read the announcement here at 2.30 am: http://www.rba.gov.au/.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Tonight in the US: consumer confidence, factory orders, vehicle sales.

Good luck to all (including Melbourne Cup punters).