daytrades dec 23 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Shares are set to open at a six-week high after oil and U.S. equity indexes edged to their loftiest levels in two years.

The March SPI futures contract ended the night session 17 points or nearly 0.4% stronger at 4786, suggesting a third day of gains for the local share market.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.33% on low holiday-season volume overnight for a fifth straight winning session despite some disappointing economic reports. The Dow added 25 points or 0.22% and the Nasdaq added 0.15%.

Wall Street shrugged off weak GDP and inflation readings and a soft profit report from consumer bellwether Nike. The U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.6% last quarter, less than the 2.8% expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. An inflation gauge also disappointed, recording the slowest growth since records began in 1959. Shares in Nike suffered their biggest fall in more than two years after the sports goods giant flagged lower orders than analysts expected.

"There is some mixed news out there," the chief market strategist at LPL Financial in the U.S. told MarketWatch. "Maybe the markets are getting ahead of themselves, even though there are a lot of good reasons why stocks should be going up."

Oil pushed to a two-year high, closing above $90 a barrel for the first time since October 2008. Crude futures were recently up 78 cents or 0.9% at $90.60 a barrel.

Metals were mixed as the U.S. dollar index wobbled in and out of positive territory and some traders closed positions ahead of year-end. Gold for February delivery was recently down $4.80 or 0.35% at $1,384 an ounce, while silver for March delivery was off 14 cents or 0.5% at $29.26 an ounce.

Copper pulled back from yesterday's record high. In late trade in London, copper was down 0.2%, nickel 1.7% and tin 0.5%. Zinc was up 0.2%, aluminium 1.1% and lead 0.7%.

The major European markets closed mixed. Britain's FTSE rallied 0.53% but Germany's DAX fell 0.14% and France's CAC lost 0.2%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

WINDING DOWN: Market activity is easing as the end of the year nears. The Dow Jones traded in an unusually tight 39-point range last night and trading volume was predictably low. Our market is likely to be similar today. Volumes have plummeted this week as many institutional traders sign off until the middle of next month. A low-volume day of modest gains likely lies ahead.

OIL: First U.S. equities, then copper and finally last night oil hit a two-year high as world markets recover from the Lehman Brothers meltdown. Oil demand should be supported for the next few months by seasonal factors - principally the high-usage northern hemisphere winter.

ECONOMIC NEWS: There's nothing on the local calendar today. Trading in Japan is suspended for a public holiday. The U.S. is closed tomorrow for Christmas Eve and wraps up the week with a heavy schedule that includes monthly core durable goods orders, monthly durable goods orders, weekly unemployment claims, new home sales, personal spending and income, the consumer price index, revised consumer sentiment, revised inflation expectations and natural gas storage.

Good luck to all.