daytrading nov 30 pre-market

Morning traders.

Market wrap:

A big overseas rally in Rio Tinto and gains in key commodities have Australian shares aiming higher following a nervy session on Wall Street.

The December SPI 200 futures contract ended the night session 23 points or 0.5% stronger at 4512 as cost-cutting plans announced yesterday helped push market heavyweight Rio up 5.08% in UK trade and 4.43% in the US. The gains came despite wobbles on Wall Street after leading Republican John Boehner declared "no substantive progress" had been made on fiscal cliff negotiations.

The S&P 500 shed all of its gains following Boehner's comments before recovering to a closing advance of 0.43%. The Dow added 38 points or 0.29% and the Nasdaq put on 0.68% as tech stocks out-performed the general market.

House Speaker Boehner upped the ante in budget talks with the White House by telling reporters that Democrats had to "get serious" about spending cuts if they want a deal before a package of automatic cuts and tax increases kicks in on January 1. His comments followed a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, which Boehner complained produced no new proposal. Shares began to recover as Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid retorted that Democrats were still waiting for a serious offer from Republicans to help break the stalemate. Read more here.

"When the sentiment is that nothing is going to get done, it does create a lot of anxiety and selling pressure. If there's any sense of progress, then the market seems to rally," the chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management in the US told Reuters. "I think we're hostage to this for the rest of the year."

The night's economic data was once again largely ignored, despite continuing signs that the economy is slowly improving. Pending home sales increased 5.2% last month, their 18th straight month of gains. Third-quarter GDP was revised upwards to 2.7% from an initial reading of 2%, just below the consensus estimate of 2.8%. Jobless claims eased 23,000 to 393,000 last week but continued to be distorted by the after-effects of Hurricane Sandy.

An index of European stocks hit its highest level in 17 months as Europe played catch-up with Wednesday's Wall Street rally. The Stoxx Europe 600 rallied 1.16% as Germany's DAX put on 0.78%, France's CAC 1.53% and Britain's FTSE 1.15%.

Oil broke a three-session losing streak as US economic data continued to be supportive and the US dollar pulled back. West Texas crude for January delivery was lately up $1.30 or 1.5% at US$87.78 a barrel.

Gold recouped a portion of yesterday's sell-off. Gold for December delivery was recently ahead $9.30 or 0.5% at US$1,725.80 an ounce.

Industrial metals benefitted from the general improvement on commodity markets. US copper for December delivery was recently up six cents or 1.8% at US$3.60 a pound. In London, copper put on 1.8% and aluminium and zinc touched seven-week peaks. [Apologies - usual source for base metal % gains is down today.]

TRADING THEMES TODAY

RIO TO LEAD CHARGE: Much of the enthusiasm in our futures action this morning can be put down to big overseas gains in index heavyweight Rio after Chief Executive Tom Albanese announced more than US$7 billion in spending cuts and said he remained cautiously optimistic about the outlook for China. Our market barely blinked at the news yesterday, but Rio holders should see a nice bump at the open today. That should be enough to push the XJO to its highest level in at least three weeks. After that? Well, it's Friday and a second week of solid gains will be in the bag, so we may see a little weakness. Small caps outperformed the general market in the US - the Russell 2000 rallied 1.2%. Be nice if some of that risk appetite rubbed off here.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Private-sector credit figures are due at 11.30am EST. Japan has a steady trickle of data due this morning. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is due to deliver a speech at the French Treasury tonight. Europe also has inflation and unemployment figures scheduled. Highlights in the US include: personal spending and income, the Chicago PMI and core price index.

Good luck to all.