Overnight market summary: a late rally in the US saw markets close mixed and not far from Friday's closes. The Nasdaq rose more than 1%, the S&P was steady and the Dow shed 0.8%. There was strength in tech stocks and telecoms, but weakness in resources.
Oil fell hard near the US market close, losing almost 4%. Gold gave up 2% from yesterday's record Australian close (above A$1400 an ounce for the first time aided by weakness in the Aussie dollar). Base metals recovered early losses to generally finish higher.
The futures are pointing to an open around 3467.
The prognosis for the day ahead is trickier than usual, with the RBA's interest rate announcement due at 2.30 pm, CBA surprising markets with a better-than-expected profit announcement after the close yesterday and the government's stimulus package due any day. All of these factors may support our market today. Certainly worth watching the banks this morning.
