daytrades april 16 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: A modestly negative start to local trade looks likely despite a sixth night of gains on Wall Street and a mixed session for commodity prices.

With 15 minutes left to trade, the June SPI futures contract was down 4 points at 5013 as investors weighed a welter of conflicting overnight signals. Oil and copper dipped, the U.S. dollar, gold and most industrial metals rallied, Greek debt worries returned to centre stage, Google and AMD disappointed the market and American economic reports delivered a generally positive outlook. Got all that?

The major U.S. equity indexes see-sawed all night before edging higher into the close. The Dow added 21 points or 0.19%, the benchmark S&P 500 managed a mere 1 point or 0.08% gain and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.43% on the back of Intel's earnings report.

Wall Street had a flurry of economic reports to absorb. In brief: an industry survey showed increasing optimism among home builders; unemployment claims jumped 24,000 in the latest week, but analysts attributed the increase to the Easter holiday and other factors; industrial production inched up in March - the ninth straight monthly rise; and two regional manufacturing indexes showed business conditions improving.

The U.S. dollar rallied for the first session in five overnight as the euro sagged after investors abandoned Greek bonds, driving the government's borrowing costs to troubling levels. Greece asked teams from the European Union and IMF to travel to Athens on Monday to discuss the emergency-aid program agreed earlier this month.

"Greece is as close to activating the rescue package as one can imagine," a senior economist in Copenhagen told MarketWatch.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currency rivals, was recently up 0.33%.

Crude oil futures reversed some of yesterday's gains in choppy trade, sliding 40 cents or 0.47% to $85.44 a barrel.

Greece's woes were gold's gain as the precious metal benefitted from their traditional "safe haven" appeal in times of trouble. The spot gold price was recently up $4.60 from Wednesday's New York close at $1,159.40 an ounce. Silver and platinum were flat to modestly lower.

Copper lost a little ground overnight on fears that China will tighten monetary policy to control its charging economy. But nickel rocketed to a fresh two-year high and other base metals made gains. In London, copper dipped 0.1% and lead lost 0.8%, while aluminium gained 0.2%, nickel 3%, tin 1.7% and zinc 1.6%.

Key European markets hit fresh 18-month highs overnight. Britain's FTSE climbed 0.5%, Germany's DAX 0.21% and France's CAC 0.2%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS DISAPPOINT: Two of the US's big guns reported earnings after the market closed this morning. Google shares plunged more than 5% despite a 38% rise in earnings. AMD shares initially surged nearly 2% but were more recently down nearly 4%. These are bad omens for tonight's trade in the U.S. This week's earnings results have been mostly well-received but it's worth keeping an eye on U.S. futures during our trading day for signs of danger. Track U.S. futures here: http://liveindices.com/

ECONOMIC NEWS: There's nothing scheduled locally today but plenty of potential market-movers to end a busy week in the U.S. tonight, including an earnings report from financial bellwether Bank of America, building permits, housing starts, consumer sentiment and inflation expectations.

Good luck to all.