Market wrap: the ASX is set to play catch-up today after a strong night on commodity markets and Wall Street. The US passed two important tests overnight: a jobs report suggested unemployment was rising at its slowest rate in six months and leaked bank stress test results suggested most banks are in better shape than suspected. The S&P 500 rallied more than 1.7% on the news and the major banking index surged 12%.
Other sectors to advance include REITs (3.5%), natural gas (4.75%), gold/silver (5.5%) and oil (3.5%). The price of crude bolted 4.5% to $56.22, the highest level in six months, on news that US inventories rose less than expected. Gold rose 1% to $911, near the top of its trading range for the last month. Once again, the big action was in base metals, where copper had its biggest one-day rise in three weeks and zinc broke to a new six-month high. Nickel and aluminium also recorded strong gains.
Our market yesterday bet that the US would fall overnight, so futures traders reckon we have ground to make up today. The SPI closed 75 points higher at 3940.
That's a great lead for today's session. I'll be looking for miners that have pulled back in recent days. The momentum behind commodity prices is very supportive at present.
