Morning traders. The votes are in (thanks Roaminoz for setting up a poll) and from today the Day Trading forum will expand to three regular threads to run consecutively. This thread will last until the market opens at 10.00, then Tweets will launch a "morning" thread, followed at 1 pm by the regular "part 2" thread, renamed the "afternoon" thread. Thanks to all who took part.
Market wrap: Australian stocks face a flat start after modest overnight gains in Europe as Wall Street took a holiday.
The March SPI futures contract last traded at midnight and ended the session 4 points lower at 4524.
European shares rallied for the fifth session in six but surrendered some of their gains before the closing bell. Britain's FTSE tacked on 0.5%, Germany's DAX 0.2% and France's CAC 0.3% as traders bet that a rescue plan for debt-laden Greece will emerge from a meeting of European finance ministers that started yesterday.
However, market commentators warned that there were signs the rest of Europe wanted more action from Greece before it would commit to specific aid measures. The new European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs said Greece should take additional measures to slash its budget deficit, while a German opinion poll showed a majority of voters believed Greece should be tossed out of the euro zone if necessary to preserve the single currency's stability.
"This finance ministers meeting could prove disappointing again, so I wouldn't hold my breath," an analyst at Credit Agricole told Reuters.
The U.S. dollar edged higher against the euro. The dollar index was recently up 0.14%, capping commodity prices.
Crude oil futures were recently at $74 a barrel, off 0.2% in muted trade. However, the spot gold price kicked higher, recently at $1,099.50 an ounce, up around $7 on Friday's New York close.
Industrial metals were mostly higher in slim trade as Asian buyers disappeared for the week-long lunar New Year holiday. In London, copper rallied 0.7%, lead 2.2%, nickel 3.5%, tin 1.4% and zinc 1%. Aluminium was down 0.24%,
TRADING THEMES TODAY
TREADING WATER: We're unlikely to see a big move today with Wall Street closed overnight for the President's Day holiday, unless there's unexpected news. The prospect of substantial Greek-debt action coming out of the EU meeting looks increasingly slim, which may weigh on our market. We may be in for another turgid session.
EARNINGS SEASON: A heavy schedule of companies reporting earnings results today. The list includes: AEO, ASZ, CCP, CDD, CFX, CPA, CSV, DUE, FGL, GWT, MAH, MGR, MND, OKN, OST, PGA, PRU, PRY, SEK, WBC, WSA AND WYL.
ECONOMIC NEWS: The release of the minutes from the last RBA meeting at 11.30 am will provide insight into the central bank's reasons for delaying another interest rate rise. Also at 11.30: the NAB's business confidence data. The U.S. gets back to business tonight with long-term securities, regional manufacturing and the housing market index.
