Morning traders. Thanks Lioness and after-market regulars.
Market wrap:
Weakness in commodities and resource stocks points to a flat start to Australian share trade despite a positive end to Wall Street's best week of the year.
The December SPI200 futures contract dipped five points or 0.1% to 5259 on Saturday morning as BHP and Rio Tinto declined in US action with iron ore, oil and most metals.
US stocks sealed their best week since last December with further gains on Friday as a string of retailers beat profit expectations. The S&P 500 rallied eight points or 0.38% to extend its five-day advance to 3.3%. The Dow gained 91 points or 0.51% on the day and 3.4% over the week. The Nasdaq's rise was 31 points or 0.62% on Friday and 3.6% for the week.
“There’s continued upward momentum in the market as people get more comfortable with the fact that [US] rates are probably going up and they’re only going up because the economy is strong enough to justify that,” Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in the US, told Bloomberg. “I don’t think people were positioned for that coming into the week.”
Concerns about slack consumer demand were eased by upbeat quarterly earnings updates from the likes of Nike, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch and Ross Stores on Friday. The US retail ETF capped its best week in almost three years with a rise of 2% on Friday as Dow component Nike surged 5.46% after announcing a increased dividend and a stock buyback. Gap rose 7.53%, Abercrombie & Fitch 25.04% and Ross Stores 10.04%.
"The week-over-week has really been a change in the sense of the US consumer," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in the US, told CNBC.
The major indices closed below their session highs as investors juggled portfolios for option expiration and as energy and resource stocks lost ground. The US energy ETF eased 1.06% as US crude remained mired near the US$40 a barrel level. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for December delivery settled 15 cents or 0.4% lower at US$40.39 a barrel as the contract expired.
BHP faded to a loss of 0.07% in US trade after briefly reaching its highest level in more than a week. Rio Tinto shed 0.77%. Spot iron ore for import to China eased 10 cents on Friday to US$45 a dry ton. Metal Bulletin's iron ore gauge was down 91 US cents at US$45.44 a ton, drawing ever closer to the 10-year low of US$44.59. Read more here.
Gold stocks took a hit as the precious metal failed to build on Thursday's advance, the strongest in a month. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs index fell 4.01%. Gold for December delivery settled $1.60 or 0.1% lower at US$1,076.30 an ounce for a fifth straight weekly loss. The decline came after hints of further stimulus measures in Europe from ECB President Mario Draghi helped push the euro lower and the US dollar index up 0.61%.
Zinc was a rare bright spot in the commodities sector as copper and aluminium hit new six-year lows and nickel slumped to its weakest points since 2003. Zinc briefly surged 5.8% on the London Metal Exchange before closing 1.8% ahead after Chinese smelters announced cuts in output. London copper declined 0.7%, aluminium 1.2%, nickel 2.4% and tin less than 0.1%. Lead rose 0.5%. US copper for December delivery dropped 1.8% to US$2.03 a pound.
European stocks edged higher to complete their best week in a month. The Stoxx Europe 600 gained 0.22% on Friday for a weekly advance of 3.3%. Germany's DAX added 0.31% on the day, France's CAC slipped 0.08% and Britain's FTSE put on 0.07%.
The dollar was this morning buying 72.4 US cents.
TRADING THEMES TODAY
CHALLENGING RESISTANCE: The XJO starts this session coming off the back of a stellar week of gains that pushed it up to the downward trendline since April. There's a danger of a pause here, perhaps even a short-term peak, although the index has built up so much momentum that it just might smash through if the banks keep improving. The case against that outcome rests once again on the dire state of commodity markets, with iron ore, oil and most metals ending the week at or near various multi-week/month/year lows. The US dollar index is on the march and that's a big negative for dollar-denominated commodity prices. The upsurge in specs was somewhat dampened last week by a flurry of capital raisings - companies are getting in quick while the market mood is good.
ECONOMIC NEWS: No significant domestic news scheduled today. Tonight's US highlights are home resales, a flash manufacturing PMI and a monetary statement from the Federal Reserve.
