Risk markets continued to rally last night, with the US dollar falling in response, although gold was subdued, as the US corporate earnings season rolls on, with good dataflow also continuning to buoy markets.
In detail:
The UK FTSE put on 38 points or 0.6% to finish at 5740 points, now above its resistance level at 5700 points and looking bullish:
The German DAX was also up, gaining 1% or 62 points to 6416 building on its bullish case, breaking through its October resistance high, with daylight above to the pre-correction high at 7000 points:
The Euro (EUR/USD) breached 1.29 against the USD, currently trading at 1.2975, breaking out from its November 2011 downtrend (from 1.38 to 1.27) as the USD Index fell 0.4 points, as all major undollar currencies (except the Yen) rallied against the “toilet paper” standard, currently at 80.4, below its short term trendline and just above support at 79.4, a break VERY bullish for risk markets:
US markets were strong, as corporate earnings continue to be solid, with the broader S&P500 Index up 6 points, or 0.5% to 1314 points, although volume is building, it is still low. The Dow Jones was up 45 points or 0.3% to 12624 points and continued to gain momentum – a close above 12800 points would signal a new bear market rally. Finally, the tech heavy NASDAQ was up again, even on the back of disappointing Google results, up 0.7% to 2788 points, breaking through resistance and likely on its way to 2874 points:
The AUD slipped ever so slightly overnight, but remains above 1.04 against the USD this morning, currently trading at 1.0412, while it slipped below 81 cents against the Euroy to 80.78 cents.
To commodities, and WTI crude, was unchanged, still at $100.56 a barrel whilst gold was also flat, losing $2, currently at $1658USD an ounce, waiting for the open of the Asian session.
Silver was up 12 cents or 0.4% to be at $30.68USD per ounce on the spot markets. Aluminium gained over 1% to be just below $1 per lb, copper up 1.8% building on its breakout – looking like heading for $4USD a lb – and nickel shot ahead, up nearly 4% on a bullish day on the London metals market (LME).
The Aussie SPI Futures are pointing to a strong open for the S&P/ASX200 index, probably opening around the 4250 points level, with positive leads helping. Not much data (see here for full weekly list) today as we wait for the brace of end of week US dataflow tonight to shake things up a bit.
Trading Day will cover the Asian market session and the “ASX8” stocks after the close in the afternoon.