daytrading nov 30 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap:

Stocks are likely to open lower this morning after overnight falls in Australian mining stocks offset meagre gains on Wall Street.

The December SPI 200 futures contract ended the night session 24 points or 0.5% weaker at 4110 as futures traders bet that the ASX yesterday pre-empted stronger rises in US equities. Australian miners mostly lost ground in US trade, despite modest rises in oil, gold and US copper. Rio Tinto fell 0.7%, Alumina lost 1.5% and BHP ended flat.

Wall Street was initially boosted by hopes for a meeting of European finance ministers overnight and by the biggest jump in consumer confidence in the US in eight years. But ongoing worries over elevated Italian bond yields helped pare the S&P 500's second day of gains to 0.22%. The Dow added 59 points or 0.51% and the Nasdaq fell 0.26%.

The market welcomed a rebound in consumer confidence that surpassed expectations by a wide margin. The Conference Board's gauge surged from a revised 41 in October to 56 this month. The median forecast according to a Bloomberg survey was 44.

"The economic reports have shown that the US has been insulated from all the noise coming out of Europe," the head of asset allocation for ING Investment Management told Bloomberg. "Consumers are not really bothered by that, at least not yet."

European markets edged higher in choppy trade as investors hung on news from a gathering of euro-zone finance ministers in Brussels to discuss the European Financial Stability Facility. The major markets struggled higher through a night of mostly gloomy developments, including a partly-successful Italian bond auction, a report that S&P may downgrade the outlook for French debt and the fall-out from Moody's threat late Monday to downgrade ratings on various European banks. Italy's bond auction saw an improvement in demand but yields were well above the critical 7% level. Britain's FTSE advanced 0.46%, Germany's DAX 0.95% and France's CAC 0.46%.

A decline in the US dollar helped oil and gold advance. Oil caught a tailwind from the improvement in US consumer confidence, trading once again near US$100 a barrel. Light, sweet crude for January delivery was recently ahead $1.67 or 1.7% at US$99.88 a barrel.

Gold improved for a second night, although volumes remained light and trade choppy. Gold for December delivery was lately up $6.70 or 0.4% at US$1,717.50 an ounce. December silver fell 21 cents or 0.6% to US$31.94 an ounce.

US copper bucked a mostly negative night in London trade as industrial metals buyers waited for fresh direction. In London, copper eased 0.3%, aluminium 1.5%, lead 0.5%, nickel 0.5% and tin 1.3%. Zinc rallied 0.15%. US copper was recently up 1%.

TRADING THEMES TODAY

UNDERWHELMED AND IN THE RED: Futures traders don't think much of an overnight lead from Wall Street that is significantly weaker than our market priced in yesterday. World markets are now at a pivot point. Is this week's rally just another dead cat bounce in a downtrend or a genuine change of direction? The overseas action didn't answer that question and our market may be range-bound today in the absence of unexpected news. That said, there is room for an intraday recovery if the XJO opens as weak as futures traders expect.

END-OF-MONTH WINDOW DRESSING: The last day of the month sometimes produces late afternoon rallies as fund managers remunerated against monthly benchmarks try to squeeze out a final few pips. That said, this has been a dud month and the index is set to finish some way below where it started November. Bring on December.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Australian monthly new home sales are due today (exact time uncertain), followed by quarterly private capital expenditure and monthly private sector credit at 11.30 am AEST. Overseas, tonight's main interest lies in developments at the meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels and in US jobs news. The schedule in the US includes: non-farm employment change, job cuts, pending home sales, the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, crude oil inventories, Chicago PMI, revised non-farm productivity and revised unit labour costs.

Good luck to all.