daytrades june 21 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Stocks are set to open modestly ahead this morning after Wall Street continued to inch higher but resource prices ended the week mixed.

The September SPI futures contract advanced 6 points to 4566 as gold hit a new record high on Friday and global shares gained for a ninth straight day. The MSCI World Index of stocks is up more than 7% after its longest rally in 11 months. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index reached a five-week high and the euro had its biggest weekly gain in a year.

In the U.S., a choppy quadruple-witching session ended the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 16 points or 0.16%, the S&P 500 gained 0.13% and the Nasdaq 0.11%. The gains on the S&P 500 were led by commodity producers and financials, while the defensive health-care and telecom sectors had the biggest declines.

"The stock gains are very comforting," the chief market strategist for JPMorgan Funds told Bloomberg. "They suggest this is still a bull market. There's a realisation that the measures put in place by European governments and the IMF to deal with the debt issues are sufficient to do the job. It's likely that the global economic recovery will be able to overcome the speed of the European crisis."

Investor nerves were soothed by an upbeat outlook for Asian economies from Caterpillar, although the U.S. industrial giant and Dow component was less sanguine about Europe. Caterpillar said it recorded a 38% year-over-year surge in machine sales in Asia last month.

Momentum in gold remained strong, driving the precious metal to a new record high. Gold climbed 2.3% for the week - its fourth straight week of gains. The spot price closed at $1,256.50 an ounce, up $11.30 from Thursday's New York close.

Industrial metals weakened as investors continued to price in lower demand from the U.S after recent economic data pointed to a slowing recovery. Copper fell for a third day to its lowest level in a week. In London, copper dipped 0.4%, aluminium 1.3%, lead 1%, nickel 1%, tin 0.8% and zinc 1.5%.

"I think what you're seeing right now is a situation where the economic data in the U.S. is an indication that the housing recovery and jobs recovery is not as strong as what a lot of market followers were expecting them to be at this point in the recovery," a senior market strategist in the U.S. told Reuters.

Crude oil ended a strong week little changed. Crude for July delivery rallied 39 cents or 0.5% to $77.18 a barrel but the contract most actively traded, crude for August delivery, shed 2 cents to $78.01 a barrel.

The major European markets closed mixed but near flat. Britain's FTSE lost 0.06% and Germany's DAX dropped 0.11% but France's CAC added 0.11%.

TRADING THEMES THIS WEEK

SEASONAL WEAKNESS: There are two headwinds this week for the month-long counter-trend rally that has been developing here and overseas. Locally, the last two weeks of June tend to be weak because of end-of-year tax-loss selling, while the U.S. tends to be soft following Friday's "quadruple witching", marking the expiration of four kinds of options and futures contracts. The director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab in the U.S. said the U.S. has trended lower for the last six years after quadruple witching.

CONFUSED OUTLOOK = UNCERTAINTY: A fascinating week lies ahead as investors try to pick a way through a welter of mixed signals from technicals, economic data and seasonal influences. The technical outlook brightened considerably last week both here and overseas, with the Dow and S&P 500 moving back above their 200-day moving averages. However, the economic outlook in the U.S. seemed to dim, suggesting the fundamentals are weakening. Spot the contradiction. For now, at least, investors seem to be in a forgiving mood and that is likely to translate into further gains in the week ahead.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Local economic reports are thin on the ground for the next week and a half as the tax year comes to a close. Monthly motor vehicle sales today at 11.30 am is the only scheduled report this week. The U.S. remains as busy as ever. There is nothing scheduled tonight but the rest of the week's highlights include: new and existing home sales and an FOMC meeting (Wed); jobless claims and durable goods orders (Thu); and GDP and consumer sentiment (Fri).

Good luck to all.