daytrades oct 4 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: Australian stocks are primed to open higher after sold gains for commodities and a modest rise on Wall Street on Friday.

The December SPI futures contract closed 25 points ahead at 4611 on Saturday morning after Wall Street advanced its September rally despite conflicting signals about the U.S. economy.

The Dow rallied 42 points or 0.39% on Friday but finished 0.3% lower for the week, ending a four-week winning run. The S&P 500 added 0.44% and the Nasdaq trailed at +0.09%.

Investors had to sift through a slew of mixed economic reports. The market was cheered by rises in consumer confidence and spending and comments by Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley that the central bank will likely take further action to fuel the flagging recovery. Dudley's remarks helped the market recover after a report showed manufacturing eased in August to its slowest level in 10 months.

"The U.S. economy is slowing but not dramatically and the Fed is still likely to invoke some quantitative easing later this year," the chief market strategist at LPL Financial in the U.S. told Bloomberg. [Manufacturing] "was weaker news but it also maybe makes it that much more likely the Fed will step in with additional stimulus."

The U.S. dollar fell to a six-month low against the euro as the weak manufacturing data increased the odds on further central bank monetary easing. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six currencies, fell 0.9% on Friday, adding to its biggest quarterly fall in eight years.

Resources, which tend to rise when the U.S. dollar declines, had a strong session, with gains for oil, metals and Australian miners listed on U.S. bourses. BHP, Rio Tinto and Alumina all rallied more than 1.7%.

Oil hit a seven-week high as Friday's strong Chinese manufacturing report overshadowed slowing U.S. activity. Crude futures rallied $1.74 or 2.2% to $81.73 a barrel.

Precious metals continued to set new benchmarks. The spot gold price rallied $9.10 to $1318.60 an ounce, a record close, and November silver added 24 cents, or 1.1%, to $22.06 an ounce.

Industrial metals marched higher, with copper at a new two-year high and tin pushing close to its all-time high. In London, copper added 1.06%, aluminium 0.01%, lead 1.09%, nickel 2.03%, tin 2.68% and zinc 1.36%.

The major European markets were mixed, with rising mining stocks helping the UK buck the down-trend on the mainland. Britain's FTSE rallied 0.8%, Germany's DAX fell 0.28% and France's CAC lost 0.62%.

TRADING THEMES THIS WEEK

INTEREST RATES: For the first month in a long time there is genuine uncertainty over whether the Reserve Bank will pull the trigger at tomorrow's cash rate-setting meeting. Recent economic data has been moderating, with house prices and building approvals in decline. Last week's reports saw the odds on a rise tomorrow decrease from 65% to 50%. With uncertainty in the market, we could see a significant move one way or the other when the rate is announced at 2.30 pm tomorrow.

PUBLIC HOLIDAY BLUES: Today's Labor Day public holiday in NSW, ACT and SA will mean a slow start to the week, with local trading volumes likely to be well down on normal. Another factor likely to affect trade this week is a four-day public holiday in China running through to Thursday, robbing our market of one of its major intraday leads.

ECONOMIC NEWS: A busy week for economic reports here and in the U.S. The local calendar includes: the monthly inflation gauge (today 9.30 am); retail sales, trade balance, business confidence, job ads, RBA rates meeting, services index (tomorrow); and the construction index, unemployment rate, RBA annual report (Thu). The key reports in the U.S. are: pending home sales (tonight); non-manufacturing PMI (Tue); non-farm employment change (Wed); unemployment claims (Thu); and unemployment rate (Fri).

Good luck to all.