daytrades april 12 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Local shares are set to start the week near an 18-month high after Wall Street wrapped up its sixth straight winning week on Friday.

Futures traders expect our market to open 19 points stronger this morning. The June SPI futures contract ended the week at 4989 after the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke the 11,000 mark for the first time since September 2008 on Friday.

An upbeat outlook from market heavyweight Chevron and positive wholesale inventories data helped U.S. stocks march higher. The Dow touched 11,000 and closed 70 points or 0.64% up at 10,997. The S&P 500 gained 0.67% and the Nasdaq 0.71%. The BNY Mellon Australia Classic ADR Index, which tracks Australian companies listed on American stock indexes or sold over the counter in the US, rallied 0.85%.

New data showed sales at U.S. wholesalers hit their highest level in 16 months during February, raising hopes for the first-quarter earnings season, which gets underway tonight (see below).

Fears about Greece's grinding debt problems, eased after a European Union insider said there had been an agreement on possible emergency loans. The news helped soothe investor nerves after ratings agency Fitch downgraded Greece's debt rating to the lowest investment level. The news helped the euro advance against the U.S. dollar, indirectly supporting commodity prices. The US dollar index slipped 0.8%.

Precious metals were the main beneficiary, with gold, silver and platinum all posting gains. Gold broke to a four-month high. The spot price closed $1.20 higher at $1,161.40 an ounce.

Aluminium hit an 18-month high as industrial metals continued to rally. In London, copper rose 0.2%, aluminium 1.7%, lead 1.3%, nickel 1.8%, tin 0.5% and zinc 1.3%.

Crude oil bucked the general up-trend in commodities, falling for a third session. Crude futures closed 43 cents or 0.5% lower at $84.92 a barrel.

Hopes for a Greek rescue package helped the major European markets close well ahead. Britain's FTSE added 1.02%, Germany's DAX 1.26% and France's CAC 1.81%.

TRADING THEMES THIS WEEK

U.S. Q1 REPORTING: We should see some volatility creep back into the market as the U.S. first-quarter reporting season commences tonight. Analysts are optimistic that companies will continue to beat expectations, but the last two quarterly reporting seasons saw pullbacks of 5 - 10% as investors who had "bought the rumour, sold the news". Alcoa kicks off the earnings season tonight. Its shares slipped 3.2% on Friday after downgrades as analysts reined in expectations ahead of tonight's result. Other heavyweights reporting this week include: Intel (Tuesday); Google, AMD (Thursday); Bank of America, General Electric (Friday).

GOLD: The price of gold broke convincingly through a key resistance level on Friday to a four-month high. The breakout is likely to encourage technical buying, with a push towards last year's record high in the weeks ahead now a strong possibility.

GREEK SOLUTION?: Over the weekend, Europe finally fleshed out its previously vague and unconvincing plan to support Greece through its debt woes. Euro-zone nations and the IMF will jointly provide up to 30 billion euros in the form of three-year loans at 5%. This concrete commitment may finally take Greece out of the spotlight. However, this is unlikely to be the last we'll hear about euro-zone debt problems.

ECONOMIC NEWS: A busy week kicks off with monthly home loans at 11.30 am today. Tomorrow brings business conditions and lending finance; Wednesday consumer confidence; and Thursday inflation expectations and monthly data from China. Earnings results will be the main focus in the U.S. this week, but there is a heavy schedule of economic news towards the end of the week. Tonight's key feature is the Federal Budget Balance.

Good luck to all.