daytrades april 27 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: The share market is set to open ahead this morning but overnight falls in key commodities and losses on Asian exchanges yesterday may partly offset solid gains in US stocks.

The June SPI futures contract ended the night session 21 points or 0.43% stronger at 4936 after another round of upbeat quarterly earnings fired US stocks to their highest level in nearly three years. Oil and most metals retreated.

The Dow rallied 115 points or 0.93% overnight to 12,595, a level last seen in May 2008. The gains followed a rise of 52 points on Thursday and a drop of 26 points on Monday for an overall rise of 141 points since the Australian share market last traded. The S&P 500 added 0.9% overnight for an overall gain of 1.24% over the three sessions.

Last night's advance followed well-received earnings reports from a wave of companies, including Ford, United Parcel Service and 3M. Consumer confidence improved more than expected last month, while house prices fell for an eighth month.

"Corporate performance is excellent," the chief market strategist for Russell Investments told Bloomberg. "The underlying economic performance in the United States has been a pleasant surprise. Our expectation is that the Fed ends QE2 in the summer and the growth baton will be handed from policy to the private economy. That's providing rationale for the stock market to move forward."

The US dollar index sagged to its lowest level since August 2008 ahead of a Federal Reserve press briefing tonight that is expected to confirm low interest rates for the foreseeable future. The greenback fell against the euro for a sixth night as the dollar index dropped 0.25%.

Shares in Asia declined yesterday following a weak overnight lead from Wall Street and soft Chinese import data. The Shanghai Composite dropped 0.88%, Japan's Nikkei 1.17% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.54%.

Silver slumped overnight after Monday's record-volume session saw an 8% surge, then a sharp pull-back after the price failed to break the 1980 record high. May silver was recently off $1.59 or 3.4% at US $45.55 an ounce. Gold for June delivery was off $2.60 or 0.2% at $1,506.50 an ounce.

Demand for industrial metals was crimped by a 43% tumble in Chinese copper imports last month from the same time last year. In London, copper fell 1.6%, aluminium 0.2%, lead 1.3%, nickel 1.1% and zinc 3%. Tin edged 0.1% higher and US copper was recently trading little changed.

"I think the overall story is as much to do with the shenanigans in silver yesterday, which was so volatile," a BNP Paribas strategist told Reuters. "So I think that's causing a bit of nervousness and perhaps the markets are still digesting what were definitely not bullish figures for the Chinese trade data."

Oil ended a choppy session lower on weak volume but remained near three-year highs. Crude for June delivery was recently off 35 cents or 0.3% at $111.93 a barrel.

Deal news and solid earnings helped the major European markets shrug off yesterday's weak session in Asia. Britain's FTSE put on 0.85%, Germany's DAX 0.84% and France's CAC 0.58%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS?: A mixed but mostly positive lead for our market this morning following three days of action since our market last traded. The broad themes are: US and European stocks strong, Asian stocks weak, oil and gold little changed, silver down after a huge spike on Monday, copper and most base metals softening after signs of flagging demand in China. Our resources sector may come under mild selling pressure today but other sectors should take up the slack.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Quarterly CPI figures are due at 11.30 am. A busy session tonight in the US includes the Federal Reserve's first quarterly press briefing to accompany the funds rate statement, core durable goods and crude oil inventories.

Good luck to all.