Morning traders.Market wrap: Shares are primed to open flat...

Morning traders.

Market wrap:

Shares are primed to open flat after a late recovery in US stocks following a report that Greece will formally commit to austerity measures necessary to secure a second bailout.

The March SPI 200 futures contract ended the night session two points or less than 0.1% weaker at 4207 as Wall Street finished mixed and the big Australian miners fell in overseas trade.

US stocks tumbled in early trade after US retail sales missed targets and European leaders held off on a second Greek bailout package. However, the benchmark indexes rebounded sharply in the final hour of trade after Reuters reported that Greece will offer a formal letter of commitment to its lenders tomorrow. The news helped the Dow turn a near-100 point loss into a four-point or 0.03% gain. The S&P 500 lost 0.09% and the Nasdaq added 0.03%.

Retail sales rose by a seasonally-adjusted 0.4% last month, missing forecasts for a 1% rise as car sales disappointed. The report punctured some of the optimism about recent signs of improvement in the US economy.

"The thing with a lot of the economic data is that it's just very choppy," the chief investment officer at Tactical Allocation Group in the US told Bloomberg. "You've had a significant run-up in the market and you haven't really had any significant pullback. We approached the highs of 2011 and that's going to be a resistance in the very, very short term."

European markets weakened after Moody's downgraded six euro-zone countries and the chairman of a euro-zone finance panel said he was waiting for the Greek government to guarantee austerity plans before a second bailout can be approved. A meeting of European finance ministers scheduled for tonight has been replaced by a teleconference. The news overshadowed a jump in German investor confidence to nine-month highs. Britain's FTSE eased 0.1%, Germany's DAX 0.15% and France's CAC 0.26%.

A strong rally in the US dollar pressured commodity prices, leaving most metals and mining companies weaker. In US trade, Rio Tinto fell 3.3%, BHP 2.1% and Alumina 3.7%.

Gold dropped for a third straight day after hitting overhead technical resistance. Gold for April delivery was recently down $2.70 or 0.2% at US$1,722.20 an ounce.

"Gold is displaying weakness and is struggling to break through resistance at US$1,750 an ounce as traders hesitate to add to positions," an executive director at GoldCore in the US told MarketWatch. "However, significant macro-economic and geopolitical risk and the appalling fiscal state of most major industrial nations means that gold will almost certainly eke out further gains in all currencies in the coming months."

Copper continued to ease after surging more than 12% over the first few weeks of the new year. In London, copper fell 0.7%, lead 2.4%, nickel 2.2%, tin 2% and zinc 1.7%. Aluminium put on 0.4%. US copper was recently down 0.35%.

Oil hovered around a five-week high, kicking ahead with equities in the last hour. Crude for March delivery was lately up 24 cents or 0.2% at US$101.15 a barrel.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

REBOUND: Wall Street has been a "buy-the-dip" market all year but this morning's recovery was something special, thanks to Reuters. Given the scale of yesterday's fall on the XJO, I'd be surprised if our market doesn't open stronger following that rebound. Local futures traders barely had time to react the speed of the rebound in the US.

URANIUM: News late yesterday that NSW has overturned a decades-old ban on exploring for uranium should provide a boost for a few miners this morning. Not really my field. Time for some research.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Consumer sentiment figures are due at 10.30am EST, followed by car sales at 11.30am. Europe has GDP data tonight and British inflation figures. Highlights in the US include the minutes from the last Fed meeting, long-term purchases, industrial production, crude oil inventories and the Empire State manufacturing index.

Good luck to all.