Market wrap: Australian stocks are set to open at a nine-week high after U.S. equities shrugged off soft housing data and a weak start for commodities.
Futures traders expect our market to open 35 points stronger. The June SPI futures contract closed at 4931 after Wall Street pushed to fresh 17-month highs overnight.
Shaky home sales provided the only real wobble on a night of solid advances for the major U.S indexes. The Dow tacked on 103 points or 0.95%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.72% and the Nasdaq 0.83%. The BNY Mellon ADR Australia Index, which tracks Australian companies listed on American stock indexes, surged 1.77%.
Existing-home sales dipped 0.6% last month to their lowest annual rate in eight months. Sales have now declined for the last three months, despite the restoration and expansion of a government subsidy for first-time home buyers.
"The housing data was okay, but not fabulous," a market analyst told MarketWatch. "The data is still indicative of a housing market that is still struggling, inventory of homes is up, pricing is generally down, and that's not inclusive of what banks might be holding back from inventory."
Equities ignored further gains in the U.S. dollar but commodities did not escape its effects. The dollar index, which tracks the currency against a trade-weighted basket of six others, was recently up 0.2%.
Industrial metals mostly traded moderately lower in London despite further evidence of rising demand. In London, copper slipped 0.2%, aluminium 0.4%, lead 3.2%, tin 0.5% and zinc 2.1%. Nickel continued to outperform, boosted by tight supply, rising 0.8%.
The oil price endured a roller-coaster as traders absorbed currency movements, housing data and the latest rumbles from Greece. Crude futures were recently 31 cents or 0.4% higher at $81.91 a barrel.
Precious metals shook off early weakness to trade modestly higher. The spot gold price was recently $1,104.80 an ounce, up $2.20 or 0.2% from Monday's New York close.
Major European markets pushed higher in choppy action. Britain's FTSE gained 0.52%, Germany's DAX 0.5% and France's CAC 0.63%.
TRADING THEMES TODAY
THE RALLY THAT WON'T QUIT: Another day, another 100+ rise on the Dow. Buying was strong through to the close, suggesting bullish investors can't see any reason why this long rally, now into its sixth week since the February low, won't continue. Our market still hasn't cracked its January high but a solid day today would leave us just one strong session from a breakout. Can't fight the trend.
ECONOMIC NEWS: This month's skilled vacancies data are due at 11 am. More home sales data are due tonight in the U.S. Also scheduled are durable goods and crude oil inventories.
