daytrading jan 23 pre-market

Morning traders. Thanks Trees.

Market wrap:

Shares look set to extend yesterday's losses at today's open following a mixed night on Wall Street as a bumpy earnings season failed to inspire investors.

The March SPI 200 futures contract fell 22 points or 0.4% to 5258 as BHP declined in US trade as materials companies underperformed the broader market.

A tight, range-bound session saw the S&P 500 gain less than a point or 0.07% following a 6% dive in luxury accessories maker Coach. The Dow slipped 41 points or 0.25% as IBM's Q4 revenue missed targets. The Nasdaq rallied 0.41%.

"Earnings have been mixed," David Chalupnik, head of equities at Nuveen Asset Management in the US, told Bloomberg. "If we as a country, we as a world, stay in the muted economic growth we've experienced in the past two years, the market probably can't support the valuations here. We need better economic numbers and we need earnings to follow that."

The Dow and the S&P 500 are experiencing their biggest divergence in two years after prominent blue-chip stocks including Johnson & Johnson and Verizon missed targets. Shares in IBM lost 3.18% overnight after the tech giant's revenue and outlook were lower than analysts anticipated.

Industrials and consumer discretionary stocks were the best of the 10 industry groups. Materials and telecoms were worst, both losing at least 0.6%. BHP dropped 0.24% in US trade after losing 1.11% in UK action. Rio Tinto rallied 1.07% in the US. Spot iron ore for import to China yesterday arrested its slump, rising 30 cents to US$123.50 a dry tonne.

Gold stocks fell after Morgan Stanley became the latest investment bank to cut its price targets for the metal. The NYSE Gold Bugs index declined 2.77% as gold for February delivery fell $5.40 or 0.4%, lately buying US$1,236.40 after settling at US$1,238.60 an ounce. Morgan Stanley analysts reduced their 2014 gold forecast by 11.6% to $1,160 an ounce and their 2015 forecast by 12.5% to $1,138. Read more here.

Oil enjoyed its best session in several weeks following yesterday's improved global energy demand outlook from the International Energy Agency. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for March delivery, now the front-month contract, was recently ahead $1.8 or 2% at US$96.86 after settling at US$96.28 a barrel.

Copper led a retreat in base metals as traders bet that next week's Chinese Lunar New Year holiday will dampen demand. US copper for March delivery was recently down 0.7% or about two cents at US$3.33 a pound. In London, copper was off 0.5% in late trade and nickel was up 0.3%. Aluminium, lead, tin and zinc were all lower.

A quiet session in Europe saw the Stoxx Europe 600 index edge up 0.09% as Germany's DAX dipped 0.1%, France's CAC advanced 0.03% and Britain's FTSE lost 0.12%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

CHINA WATCHING: Wall Street appears to be in a holding pattern, which is not a bad outcome considering some of the earnings misses. That suggests that for all the talk of over-extended valuations and a likely correction, plenty of optimists expect this rally to continue. Our futures reading seems gloomier than justified by the overseas action, so I may have missed something. Could be concerns about the lunchtime manufacturing update from China, which is expected to show a tiny improvement, according to Forex Factory, from a December reading of 50.5 to a preliminary January figure of 50.6. That prediction could prove optimistic, if the recent softening in Chinese data is any gauge. The recent rally in US gold miners stuttered overnight.

ECONOMIC NEWS: The monthly inflation expectations report is due at 11.30am EST, but today's main interest during market hours is the 12.45pm EST HSBC flash manufacturing PMI for China. A Chinese leading index, due at 1pm, is less likely to have an impact. Europe has services and manufacturing reports out tonight. Wall Street finally gets some meaty economic data, with existing home sales, weekly jobless claims, flash manufacturing, leading index, house price index and crude oil inventories.

Good luck to all.