Morning traders. Great to be back. Many thanks to Endless, Aksier, Haspete, Tweets, Onslow and all others who kept things kicking along during what looks to have been a turbulent week. Congrats to Gizard on a well-deserved heart.
Market wrap: Australian stocks are likely to make a cautiously positive start to trade after U.S. equities inched higher on Friday and Ireland prepared to accept a limited bailout.
The December SPI futures contract ended 6 points or 0.13% higher on Saturday morning at 4655 as modest gains on Wall Street off-set a directionless session on commodity markets.
The Dow fell in early trade on Friday but reversed to close 22 points or 0.2% higher for the session and 0.1% ahead for the week. The S&P 500 added 0.25% on Friday and the Nasdaq 0.15% as solid U.S. earnings reports helped soothe concerns over China's rate hike and European sovereign debt problems.
"From a domestic standpoint, the economy's picking up, employment's improving and earnings are pretty good," the chief investment officer at PNC Wealth Management in the U.S. told Bloomberg. "Things will be choppy, but in a rising domestic environment."
Beleaguered Ireland is expected to accept a bailout package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund as early as today. Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan conceded overnight that the cost of supporting Ireland's banks was too much for the country alone and it will accept a rescue package of less than 100 billion euros ($139 billion).
The U.S. dollar eased on Friday as the euro recovered lost ground. The dollar index, which marks the greenback against six major currencies, fell 0.14%, down for a third day from Tuesday's two-month high.
Oil fell heavily for a second week as China's move to lift its bank reserve requirements by 0.5% raised demand fears. Crude ended Friday 44 cents or 0.53% lower at $81.56 a barrel, down 4% for the week.
Industrial metals ended a negative week mixed. In London, copper and nickel advanced 0.2%, aluminium fell 1.4%, lead 1.8% and zinc 0.3%, while tin was flat.
Gold steadied as currency market volatility settled down. Spot gold ended the week 60 cents stronger than Thursday's New York close at $1,354.10 an ounce.
The major European markets trimmed early losses as uncertainty over the Irish situation continued to weigh on trade. Britain's FTSE lost 0.62% and France's CAC 0.2%, while Germany's DAX added 0.17%.
TRADING THEMES THIS WEEK
THANKSGIVING WEEK IN THE U.S.: We're likely to see lighter trading volumes this week as Wall Street activity winds down ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving public holiday. Many traders are likely to leave their desks earlier in the week and take Friday as a holiday. The scheduled news flow in the U.S. is also light as the earnings season tapers off and the holiday casts a long shadow. The absence of major news may allow world markets to consolidate or improve after a solid pull-back over the last few weeks.
EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS: Weekend news that Ireland is close to agreeing on a rescue package from the EU and IMF should help ease concerns that European debt contagion again threatens the global recovery. Attention is likely to swing towards Portugal and Spain, however, success in containing the problems in Ireland should bolster investor confidence that the EU can muddle through.
ECONOMIC NEWS: It's a light week for scheduled news both here and abroad. There's nothing major locally until Wednesday's 10 am monthly leading index and 11.30 am quarterly construction work report, followed by the quarterly private capital expenditure report on Thursday and testimony from RBA Governor Glenn Stevens before the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics on Friday. The key news releases this week in the U.S. are: preliminary GDP, existing home sales, FOMC Meeting Minutes (Tue); and unemployment claims, core durable goods orders, new home sales (Wed).
