daytrading april 27 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap:

The ASX 200 has 4400 in its sights again this morning after US investors found the positives in a mixed night of economic news and earnings reports.

The June SPI 200 futures contract ended the night session 18 points or 0.4% stronger at 4399 as oil and metals rallied.

The S&P 500 put together its best three-day run since February, advancing 0.67% overnight to 1,400 for the first time in three weeks. The Dow gained 114 points or 0.87% and the Nasdaq 0.69%.

The rally gathered steam after housing data showed pending sales jumped 4.1% last month to a two-year high. The data helped investors ignore a third week of unexpectedly soft jobless claims and a fall in durable-goods orders. Weekly claims for unemployment benefits fell by just 1,000 to 388,000, raising concerns that the employment market is weakening again. Durable-goods orders declined 4.2% last month.

Earnings results continued to trend positive, with 72.4% of the companies that have reported to date beating expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. Bellwether stocks UPS and Exxon were notable misses last night, but software-maker Citrix and Lockheed Martin both delivered positive surprises.

"Things are better," the director of international research at Charles Schwab in the US told Bloomberg. "We did get several months of better-than-expected economic data. The earnings season has been pretty good."

Commodities benefitted from renewed hopes for "QE3" - a third round of monetary easing - following comments by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday that the central bank was keeping its options open. The possibility of another round of money-printing pushed the US dollar lower overnight.

Gold pushed to a two-week high as traders sought alternative stores of wealth to the greenback. Gold for June delivery was lately ahead $14.70 or 0.9% at US$1,657 an ounce.

"Although the Fed did not announce another round of easing, intentions to keep monetary policy at highly accommodative levels are a bullish case for gold prices," an analyst at HSBC Securities told MarketWatch. "The decline of gold prices on the Fed announcement was an overreaction. The ability of gold prices to bounce back is a good sign."

Copper rallied for a third night as technical buying kicked in after it broke above its 200-day moving average. In London, copper added 1.6%, aluminium 1%, lead 1.4%, nickel 3.7%, tin 1% and zinc 1.6%. US copper was recently up 2% at $3.78 a pound, its highest level since April 5.

Oil inched higher for a third session. West Texas crude for June delivery put on five cents or less than 0.1% at US$104.17 a barrel.

The major European markets closed mixed after a choppy session as a gauge of economic sentiment in the euro-zone delivered its weakest reading since December. Germany's DAX put on 0.53%, Britain's FTSE added 0.52% and France's CAC fell 0.13%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

RALLY TO CONTINUE: The ASX suffered a bout of vertigo yesterday and looked a bit toppy when it reached levels last seen in October. However, a nice set of overnight leads will give the XJO a second chance to explore 4400 today. US investors were minded to focus on the positives last night because there were enough disappointments to sink the index on another day (jobless claims, durable goods, UPS, Exxon). Short term, that's a bullish sign. Another positive is that shares in Amazon have surged nearly 15% since the company reported its earnings this morning after the close of regular trade in the US.

INDUSTRIAL METALS REBOUND: April has been a soft month at the London Metals Exchange but a bullish overnight session saw most base metals reach their highest levels in more than two weeks. At the least it looks like the group is bottoming out. The next few weeks should confirm.

ECONOMIC NEWS: There's no major domestic news scheduled today. Italy auctions 10-year bonds tonight. The advance quarterly GDP report is tonight's highlight in the US. Also due: advance GDP price index, employment cost index and revised consumer sentiment and inflation expectations.

Good luck to all.