daytrades september 15 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap: A late sell-down on Wall Street points to a soft start to local trade but gold shares will benefit from a new record high for the precious metal overnight.

The September SPI futures contract closed 10 points weaker at 4630 this morning after a mixed session for overseas equities and commodities.

The biggest rise in U.S. retail sales in five months was not enough to keep the main share indexes in positive territory. The Dow faded in the final minutes to finish 18 points or 0.17% weaker, ending a four-day winning run. The S&P 500 ended 1 point or 0.07% lower, while the Nasdaq closed 0.18% stronger.

Wall Street started the session underwater but rallied after news of a 0.4% rise in retail sales last month eased fears of economic slowdown. Analysts said the largest gain since March supported a picture of an economy recording steady but moderate growth. A business inventories report was also stronger than expected.

"We can safely say that the reported death of the American consumer has certainly been exaggerated," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co, told MarketWatch.

However, sentiment deteriorated as investors mulled a surprisingly sharp drop in German business sentiment and concerns over Bank of America's balance sheet. A gauge of sentiment among German business leaders turned negative for the first time since March 2009 and the Financial Times reported that Bank of America is planning radical action to improve its debt situation.

A move towards "safe havens" accelerated towards the end of the session after a Goldman Sachs forecast that the U.S. Federal Reserve will buy government bonds to support the economy. Gold and Treasuries rallied strongly and the U.S. dollar fell back.

Traders sold the dollar and bought gold, sending the precious metal to a new record high. The spot gold price was recently $23 or 1.8% higher than Monday's New York close at $1,268 an ounce, after earlier breaking $1,274.

"[Investors] are just looking for a safe-haven asset as they don't think the stock market is going anywhere, and with the dollar being down, gold and silver are probably the best place to be," the president of T&K Futures and Options in the U.S. told MarketWatch. "It's a huge down day for the dollar, and every time you have that, you get a nice little push for gold."

Oil's winning run came to an end in volatile trade. Crude futures were recently down 44 cents or 0.6% at $76.75 a barrel.

Industrial metals ended the session mixed. In late trade in London, copper was down 0.1%, lead 0.9% and zinc 1%, but aluminium added 0.7%, nickel 1.3% and tin 0.7%.

The major European markets closed modestly higher. Britain's FTSE added 0.03%, Germany's DAX 0.22% and France's CAC 0.19%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

GOLD: Boom. What a session. The sliding U.S. dollar has been making gold more attractive by the day and momentum buying did the rest once the old high was breached last night. Shareholders in local goldies should be popping the champagne. The rest of us will have to try to snatch a few crumbs this morning.

ECONOMIC NEWS: A trio of local reports are due at 11.30 am: consumer sentiment, monthly motor vehicle sales and quarterly housing starts. Another busy night in the U.S. brings regional manufacturing, crude oil inventories, industrial production, import prices and capacity utilisation rate.

Good luck to all.