Morning traders.Market wrap: Local stocks look set to start a...

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Local stocks look set to start a busy week of economic news firmly higher after sold gains in the US and a boom session in Shanghai.

Futures traders expect our market to open 34 points higher this morning. The SPI futures index closed at 4783 as U.S. indexes wrapped up weekly gains of around 4% on Friday.

The Dow Jones index rallied 0.8% to a new 2009 closing high during Friday trade, the S&P 500 was up 0.56% and the Nasdaq 0.72%. European markets were flat. Britain's FTSE rose 0.14%, France's CAC lost 0.19% and Germany's DAX was off 0.08%.

The gains in the US were led by the tech sector after bullish analyst comments on IBM. Resources stocks were mixed and financials rose 1.33% and biotechs 1.43%.

Shanghai surged 4.8% on Friday as it played catch-up with regional markets after returning from a week-long holiday. "The pop up was to match the performance of [Hong Kong-listed] H shares," said a Hong Kong-based sales director quoted on MarketWatch.

Crude oil futures survived an early slide to finish 0.11% higher at $72.29 a barrel as a rising U.S. dollar pressured resources prices. Gold futures lost ground on Friday but finished the week 4.3% higher. The spot price slipped $6 on Friday to $1,048.90.

Base metals gave back some of Thursday's big rally as the U.S. dollar firmed following supportive comments on monetary policy from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Aluminium slipped 0.63% in London, copper 2.05%, lead 2.19%, nickel 4.21%, tin 1.02% and zinc 2.16%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS: Friday's overseas trade offered no obvious stand-out sector plays but it also provided no reasons why our market won't see broad advances today.

BREAKOUT TRADES: Positive futures mean we should see new highs for many stocks today. One technique to capture these powerful upmoves is to set price alerts at or just above resistance or congestion levels. Expect to have to move quickly when an alert sounds - the best breakouts are quick and lucrative.

ECONOMIC NEWS: A busy week lies ahead, with the U.S. third-quarter reporting season getting into full-swing and a heavy schedule of economic indicators waiting in the second half of the week (retail sales and inventories on Wednesday, jobless claims and CPI on Thursday, industrial production and consumer sentiment on Friday). Locally, lending finance figures for August are due at 11.30 am today. It's relatively quiet tonight in the U.S. aside from more profit reports.

Good luck to all.