Morning traders.Market wrap: Australian stocks face a negative...

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Australian stocks face a negative open after fresh euro-zone woes and weakness among tech stocks dragged US indexes lower for a third day.

The September SPI futures contract closed 41 points or 0.91% weaker at 4456 on Saturday morning as oil and most metals lost ground.

Better domestic economic news in the US was overshadowed by fears that Europe's debt crisis is infecting the banking system after ratings agency Moody's placed 13 Italian lenders on review for possible downgrade. The benchmark S&P 500 sagged 1.17% on Friday to end the week 0.2% lower. The Dow dropped 115 points or 0.96% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.26% after market heavyweight Oracle reported a big fall in fourth-quarter hardware sales.

"There's anxiety in the market," a market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus in the US told Bloomberg. "When you look at Europe, you have Greece, you have the Italian banks. This theme is going to be playing for a while. In the US, the economic figures are consistent with an anaemic recovery."

The cost of insuring European sovereign debt against default reached record levels after Moody's warned that any reduction in Italy's sovereign credit rating would affect its banks. Moody's last week placed Italy's rating under review.

Weakness in the euro helped the US dollar index end the week near a three-month high, pressuring dollar-denominated commodity prices. Oil closed lower for a fourth week but once again pared losses after a dip under US $90 a barrel. Crude for August delivery eased $1.17 or 1.3% to $91.17 a barrel on Friday.

Gold fell back to mid-May levels as strength in the dollar reduced its appeal as a currency hedge. Gold for August delivery dropped $24.40 or 1.6% to US $1,500.90 an ounce.

Copper, nickel and lead bucked the downtrend in commodities, boosted by a rise in US durable goods orders and an increase in the Commerce Department's growth estimate for the first quarter. In London, copper rallied 1.2%, lead 1.3% and nickel 0.2%. Aluminium eased 0.2%, tin 0.8% and zinc 0.45%. US copper rallied 1.5%.

The major European markets began at their highs on optimism following a deal on Greece, but eroded as the session wore on. Britain's FTSE closed 0.41% ahead, while Germany's DAX fell 0.39% and France's CAC lost 0.08%.

TRADING THEMES THIS WEEK

END-OF-YEAR SELLING EASES: Tax-loss selling has been a heavy drag on a host of shares over the last month, particularly amongst the market's most beaten-up stocks. That pressure should abate this week, with the end of the financial year in sight, offering hope to holders and potential rebound trades for traders.

END-OF-QUARTER WINDOW DRESSING: We may see a slight lift in the market on Wednesday and Thursday as the big institutional buyers try to paint some lipstick on a pig of a month/quarter. Many institutional investors are assessed on their monthly/quarterly performance, so it's in their interests to nudge the market higher when conditions permit. They also want to have the best-performing stocks in their portfolios when they report to clients, which means the month/quarter's strongest stocks can get another kick higher as the institutions pile in.

ECONOMIC NEWS: There's not much on the local calendar to set pulses racing this week: Reserve Bank Assistant Governor Guy Debelle delivers a speech on "Collateral, Funding, and Liquidity" in Sydney tomorrow; monthly private-sector credit figures are due on Thursday; and Friday brings the manufacturing index, new home sales and year-on-year commodity prices. The highlights during local trading hours are Friday's monthly Chinese manufacturing data and Japan's "tankan" survey of business sentiment. This week's major releases in the US include: personal incomes, consumer spending and core PCE price index (tonight); consumer confidence (tomorrow); weekly jobless claims, Chicago PMI (Thu); and consumer sentiment, ISM, construction spending and motor vehicle sales (Fri).

Good luck to all.