daytrades june 30 pre-market

Morning traders. Tin hats on.

Market wrap: Australian stocks are set to open below their 2010 closing low after growing fears of a global slowdown drove key overseas indices down more than 3% overnight.

The September SPI futures contract closed 93 points weaker at 4245, suggesting the ASX 200 will start the session around 10 points south of the May 25 closing low after a grim night for equity and commodity prices.

Global equity indexes tumbled after the Conference Board cut its growth outlook for China and a measure of U.S. consumer confidence slumped. European markets suffered their biggest one-day fall in a month and the U.S.'s benchmark S&P 500 closed at its lowest level this year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 268 points or 2.65% to close under the 10,000 mark for the first time in two weeks at 9,870. The S&P 500 dropped 3.1% and the Nasdaq 3.85%. Earlier, Britain's FTSE fell 3.1%, Germany's DAX 3.3% and France's CAC 4% as companies exposed to China were hit hard. BHP and Rio Tinto both fell more than 5% each in British and U.S. trade.

The rout followed a 4.3% sell-off on the Shanghai Composite yesterday after the Conference Board's leading indicator for China for April was revised sharply downward. The private research group blamed a "calculation error" for a revision in its April growth from 1.7% to 0.3%. The revision meant the index now shows a slowdown from March's 1.2% advance.

The Conference Board later revealed a sharp fall in U.S. consumer confidence, which exacerbated the selling in the U.S. The Board's confidence index dropped to 52.9 this month from a revised 62.7 in May.

"China set the tone in the morning and then it accelerated, with investors probably exiting the market ahead of the U.S. unemployment data on Friday," a chief investment officer in the U.S. told Bloomberg. "Market volatility is growing, which reflects the overhang from the situation in Europe and the slowdown in China."

The euro slid as strikes in Greece and Spain highlighted opposition to government austerity measures and credit default swaps spreads in both countries hit all-time highs as the odds on defaults rose. The U.S. dollar index was recently up 0.6%, adding to the pressure on dollar-denominated commodity prices.

Industrial metals prices crumbled as investors re-assessed Chinese demand in the light of the April revision. In late trade in London, copper was off 5.7%, aluminium 4.4%, lead 8.1%, nickel 7%, tin 4.5% and zinc 6.4%.

"This reads to me as economic trouble beginning to brew," an analyst at a U.S. brokerage told Reuters. "The drop in copper is particularly notable, given its position as a leading economic indicator. What we've lost on this market today tells me we're looking at further headwinds ahead, if not a double-dip recession in the United States."

Crude oil futures suffered their worst single-day fall since the start of the month. Crude for August delivery was recently down $2.62 or 3.3% at $75.74 a barrel.

Gold survived the carnage little changed. The spot price was recently trading $2.20 higher than Monday's New York close at $1,240.80 an ounce.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

ANOTHER DOWNLEG?: A grim night by any measure. The S&P 500 set a new closing low for this year, which suggests further weakness is likely, while our market will have to close above its open to avoid setting a similar benchmark. The punishment meted out to BHP and RIO overnight suggests our mining sector will cop a hiding because international investors tend to use our market as a proxy for trading the China growth story.

HIT AND RUN: Not a day for the faint-hearted. With further weakness on our market now looking highly likely, my aim today is to skim a few points from shares hitting support levels early in the trading session and reversing. These will be purely intraday trades and probably as short as possible because I don't want to hold anything overnight today. There's a faint possibility of an intraday rally on our equity indexes for end-of-year window dressing but the instos are likely to dump any gains today at tomorrow's open.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Monthly new home sales are due some time today and monthly private sector credit data at 11.30 am. The U.S. gets a preview of Friday's official employment changes tonight with payroll services company ADP's Non-Farm Employment Change index. Also tonight: crude oil inventories and the Chicago purchasing managers' index.

Good luck to all.