daytrades oct 12 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: A directionless night on Wall Street and a mixed session for commodities point to a flat start to local trade this morning.

The December SPI futures contract closed 3 points or 0.06% stronger at 4718 after Wall Street's major indexes ended mixed but little changed.

The Dow was range-bound for most of the session in thin, holiday-affected trade and closed 2 points or 0.02% stronger. The S&P 500 fell 0.01% and the Nasdaq was up 0.02%.

U.S. government departments and bond markets were closed for the Columbus Day public holiday and there were no significant economic reports or major companies reporting overnight.

"There's a lot ahead of us this week and not much news today to set the tone," the vice-president of financial research at MF Global in the U.S. told CNN. "I think people are waiting for direction."

Resource prices were mixed as the U.S. dollar climbed off Friday's nine-month low. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was recently up 0.23%.

Gold and silver shook off early weakness to push to new record closes. The spot gold price was recently $6.70 ahead of Friday's New York close at $1,353.70 an ounce. Silver punched to a new 30-year high, the spot price trading recently at $23.31, up 9 cents.

Oil pared its recent rally as the rising U.S. dollar sapped interest in alternative investments. Crude futures were recently down 76 cents or 0.9% at $81.90 a barrel.

Industrial metals were mixed as traders weighed the rebound in the U.S. dollar against the prospect of further quantitative easing in the U.S. In late trade in London, lead was up 1.9% and zinc 1.7%, while copper was off 0.2%, aluminium 0.9%, nickel 0.3% and tin 0.6%.

The major European markets edged higher. Britain's FTSE added 0.26%, Germany's DAX 0.28% and France's CAC 0.14%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

CONSOLIDATION: Boy, was that a dull night. A public holiday in the U.S. and no news or major company reports overnight meant little change on Wall Street and few leads for our market this morning. Precious metals are the obvious pocket of strength, with gold and silver both rising despite a modest rebound in the U.S. dollar. Oil fell back and base metals were all over the place. BHP and Rio Tinto trimmed recent gains in U.S. trade, while Alumina continued to benefit from Alcoa's well-received third-quarter earnings report.

ECONOMIC NEWS: The monthly business confidence index is due at 11.30 am. Economic news is fairly light again tonight in the U.S., with the schedule dominated by the minutes from the last Federal Reserve policy meeting. Also due: consumer confidence.

Good luck to all.