daytrades august 17 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: A flat finish on Wall Street points to a subdued start to local trade, but overnight gains in metals should support the mining sector.

The September SPI futures contract closed 5 points weaker at 4415 this morning after the major U.S. equity indexes overcame early losses to close little changed as economic data continued to disappoint.

Wall Street began the session on the back foot as regional manufacturing missed expectations and Japan yesterday became the latest major power to confirm slowing economic growth. However, the Dow recovered to finish 1 point or 0.01% lower at 10,302. The S&P 500 ended 0.01% stronger at 1,079 and a rebound in technology shares fuelled a 0.39% rise on the Nasdaq.

"Save for the six-week foray in late March through April to the yearly highs, the S&P 500 has been stuck between roughly 1,150 on the high side and 1,025 on the low side for 11 months," a U.S. market commentator told MarketWatch. "Unless we see very strong economic data over the next couple of weeks, the stock markets could drift lower toward the bottom of the trading range."

Japanese growth slumped to 0.4% last quarter - well short of economists' expectations of a rise of 2.3%. Also fuelling overnight concerns were a slide in U.S. home-builders' confidence to a 13-month low and weak manufacturing numbers in the New York area.

"Economic momentum has slowed and that's worrisome," a U.S. investment strategist told Bloomberg. "The numbers show a very tepid recovery in developed economies. Corporate earnings have been good, but the overall economic momentum has been disappointing. That plays into expectations for sales growth and the stock market."

Materials companies fared better than most on U.S. equity indexes after the U.S. dollar fell for the first session in six, easing dollar-denominated commodity prices for overseas buyers. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, was recently down 0.6%.

Gold ran to a six-week high as investors continued to pursue alternatives to equities, including bonds and precious metals. The spot price was recently $9.90 higher than Friday's New York close at $1,225.30 an ounce.

Base metals were supported by yesterday's 2.1% rally in Shanghai equity markets and further evidence of falling inventories. In late trade in London, copper was up 1.1%, aluminium 0.5%, lead 1.6%, nickel 1.1%, tin 1% and zinc 1.3%.

Oil suffered another overnight loss as the weak economic outlook in the U.S. preyed on demand. Crude futures dropped 33 cents or 0.4% to a five-week low, trading recently at $75.06 a barrel.

The major European markets ended the session little changed. Britain's FTSE and Germany's DAX closed flat and France's CAC slipped 0.37%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

FINDING A SHORT-TERM BASE? The economic outlook may be deteriorating but equity markets seem to be itching for a short-term bounce. Our market was dragged up yesterday by strength in Shanghai and Wall Street once again shook off early weakness overnight. Looks like there are buyers at these levels if the flow of bad news ever stops. If. Longer term, it's obvious that global growth is slowing and we're in for a long grind.

EARNING REPORTS: A busy day in a week jam-packed with reports. Today's earnings results include: CDD, CFX, COU, CPA, CSV, GWT, MAH, MND, MSL, OST, PRY, SAI, SKC and UGL. (Sources: SMH, BRR)

ECONOMIC NEWS: The minutes from the last Reserve Bank meeting are released at 11.30 am. RBA Governor Glenn Stevens is due to deliver a speech on the role of finance at 8 pm tonight. A busy night in the U.S. includes the producer price index, building permits, mortgage delinquencies, housing starts, industrial production and capacity utilisation.

Good luck to all.