daytrading march 5 pre-market

Morning traders. Thanks Trees.

Market wrap:

The share market is set to open near this year's closing high after Wall Street hit record levels overnight on an easing of tensions in Ukraine.

The March SPI 200 futures contract rallied 43 points or 0.8% to 5448 as world markets regained most of their losses since Russian troops entered the Crimea.

The S&P 500 surged 28 points or 1.53% to a fresh record close with all 10 industry groups advancing. The Dow gained 228 points or 1.41% as all 30 components made headway during the average's best session of the year. The Russell 2000 index of small caps put on 2.73% en route to an all-time intraday record.

"In the short term, the market always over-reacts," Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in the US, told Reuters. "We got marginally good news today, but we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow."

Investors rotated out of havens such as gold and bonds back into risk assets overnight after Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to dampen war fears in Ukraine. President Putin said Russia would only use force as a "last resort" and does not intend to take control of the Crimea. US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Ukraine to offer an aid package to the country's beleaguered interim government.

Financials, industrials and health stocks led gains in the US. The Dow Jones Transportation Average charged 2.23%, while the VIX slumped nearly 12%, erasing most of Monday's gains.

European stocks snapped back as traders reassessed the likelihood of a war in the east. The Stoxx Europe 600 index bounced 2.06% as Germany's DAX added 2.46%, France's CAC 2.45% and Britain's FTSE 1.72%. Russia's MICEX regained 5.26% or around half of Monday's losses.

Australia's biggest miners overcame ongoing weakness in iron ore, which hit an eight-month low yesterday. BHP advanced 0.82% and Rio Tinto 1.17%. Spot iron ore for import to China fell 90 cents to US$116.80 a dry tonne.

Gold unwound around half of Monday's gains as the easing of geopolitical tensions undermined demand for havens. Gold for April delivery was recently off $15 or 1.1% at US$1,335 an ounce after settling at US$1,337.90.

Oil dropped from five-month highs as the prospects of sanctions against Russia's energy producers receded. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery was lately down $1.61 or 1.5% at US$103.30 a barrel after settling at US$104.21.

Zinc and nickel recorded their best prices in at least nine months during a strong rebound in base metals. In London, zinc rallied 2.5%, nickel 2.85%, copper 1.2%, aluminium 2.7%, lead 1.1% and tin 1.5%. US copper for March delivery was recently up 1.25% or four cents at US$3.21 a pound.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

FULL-STEAM AHEAD: Place your tin hat back in the cupboard and return your weapon to the guns cabinet. World peace was restored last night (apparently) and the share market is going to the moon. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but that's how world markets behaved. Risk assets rallied strongly, pushing some to all-time highs, while gold and oil took a bath. Base metals saw a great night on the London Metal Exchange. What with Ukraine and the recent run of poor US economic data, the downside risks to the Dow/S&P 500 at these levels appear to outweigh the upside by some margin. But the overnight action says I'm in a minority. The only certainty is that we're in for a choppy ride in the days ahead. Quarterly GDP data due at 11.30am EST could have a big say in how the session unfolds.

ECONOMIC NEWS: GDP figures for last quarter are due at 11.30am EST. Europe has GDP, services and retail figure scheduled for tonight. A busy session ahead in the US includes ADP non-farm employment change, final services PMI, ISM services PMI, crude oil inventories and the Federal Reserve's Beige Book.

Good luck to all.