Market wrap: The share market's long March rally looks set to stretch into a tenth session after gains on Wall Street overnight.
Futures traders expect our market to open 20 points stronger today. The March SPI futures contract closed at 4839.
Financial stocks led Wall Street higher as investors continued to buy companies that benefitted from government bailout money during the financial crisis. The S&P 500 climbed 0.45%, the Nasdaq 0.78% while the blue chips in the Dow were near break-even at +0.03%. Trading volumes continued to be below average as the major stock indexes near the January highs.
U.S. businesses reduced inventories in January but sales rose for a 10th straight month. The fall in inventories suggests businesses remain cautious about restocking shelves. Inventories dipped 0.2% in January following a 1% drop in December.
Stand-out sectors overnight included biotechs +5.5%, airlines +2.7% and banks +2.1%. Precious metals miners slipped 1.5% after falls in the prices of gold and silver.
Commodity prices were mixed despite a pullback in the U.S. dollar. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was recently off 0.15%.
Crude oil was boosted by better-than-expected U.S. supplies data and strong imports news from China. Futures were recently trading 0.53% higher at $81.92 a barrel.
Gold and silver fell but platinum remained steady. The spot gold price was recently trading at $1,107.80 an ounce, down $14.40 or around 1.4% from Tuesday's New York close.
Industrial metals suffered another mixed night, with copper up 0.7% in London but down 1.3% in New York. In London, lead rallied 2.8%, tin 0.6% and zinc 1.7% but aluminium fell 0.3% and nickel lost 1.8%.
European markets advanced after gains for energy companies. Britain's FTSE rose 0.68% and Germany's DAX and France's CAC both rallied 0.86%.
TRADING THEMES TODAY
CHINA: Today brings the monthly slug of Chinese economic news at 1 pm - industrial production, CPI, PPI, retail sales, etc. Analysts said the lunar New Year holidays may distort the February data and investors remain wary of any signs of slowing in the Asian powerhouse.
ECONOMIC NEWS: A busy day for potential market-moving news lies ahead. The flow begins with local consumer inflation expectations at 11 am, gets serious with the unemployment rate at 11.30am and then comes monthly Chinese data at 1 pm. Tonight's U.S. action includes unemployment claims, trade balance and gas inventories.
