daytrade diaries... september 10

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Local stocks look set for a positive start to the day after Wall Street's fourth straight winning session.

American investors ignored fresh evidence of flat retail sales and a weak jobs market to send the S&P 500 up 0.78%, the Dow +0.53% and the Nasdaq +1.11%. European markets were also strong, London rising 1.15%, Paris 1.28% and Frankfurt 1.69%.

U.S. stocks rallied early in the day and survived a wobble when the release of the Federal Reserve's "beige book" offered a mixed view of the economy. Financial stocks fronted the gains after a few soft sessions - the S&P Bank Index rose 2.38%. Oilers, airlines and REITs made solid advances, but some of the shine came off gold miners as the precious metal fell back from the $1000 level. The spot price was recently at $991.10, down $5.60 on yesterday.

Crude oil futures advanced for a third straight session but pared gains to finish 21 cents or 0.29% higher at $71.42, off an early high above $72.50. A weakening US dollar failed to help base metals, which eased in London trade. Aluminium slid 0.26%, copper lost 1.23%, lead 2.04%, nickel 0.69%, tin 0.54% and zinc was unchanged.

Futures traders expect the ASX to follow overseas markets higher. With 30 minutes left to trade, the SPI futures index was 26 points higher at 4552.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

PLAYING CATCH-UP: Regional markets looked nervy yesterday and retreated despite a reasonable lead from Wall Street. However, two solid sessions in the US since the Labor Day break suggests there is buying left in this rally. Can't see any strong reason why our market won't push higher today, unless the August jobs figures disappoint (see below).

EMPLOYMENT DATA: Local August jobs numbers are due to be released at 11.30am. Yesterday's weak retail sales undermined early gains on our bourse. A second day of weak economic signals would start to raise concerns about the strength of the local recovery. Economists expect the unemployment rate to be steady at 5.8%.

FINANCIALS: The US action suggests this is the sector that will do the heavy lifting on our market today.

Good luck to all.