Risk markets were mixed last night, even though the US Fed gave the green light for continued stimulus, US markets were sold off later in their sessions, with Euro markets pushing forward stronger beforehand. The rationale behind the falls was the poor new home sales data and a rise in jobless claims for the week, with US banks selling off sharply (like us, their market is overweighted to the FIRE sector)
In detail:
The UK FTSE gained over 70 points or 1.2% to finish at 5795 points, still above its resistance level at 5700 points and reaching for its previous correction high near 6000 points. The German DAX sureged almost 2% or 118 points to 6589, but still far to go before its pre-correction high with resistance at 7000 the next target.
The Euro (EUR/USD) remained above 1.31 against the USD, and is currently trading at 1.3104, as the USD Index continued to slip, but decelerating, although definitely below support at 79.6:
US markets as mentioned all lost ground, with the broader S&P500 Index finishing down 7 points or half a percent to 1318 points, still on low volume. The Dow Jones was down 22 points, or 0.2%, to 12734 points. Finally, the tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was down 13 points or 0.5% to 2805 points.
The ever resilient AUD climbed above 1.06 against the USD overnight, currently trading at 1.062, and also stayed just below 81 cents against the Euro.
To commodities, and WTI crude was effectively flat, still flirting with the $100USD a barrel level currently at $99.70USD, whilst gold continues to surge strongly, up almost $27USD an ounce overnight or 1.6% to $1729USD waiting for the open of the Asian session:
Silver likewise surged, up to $33.39USD per ounce on the spot markets. All commodities were bid up on QE3 expectations, with aluminium up 1%, now above resistance at $1 per lb, copper up over 2% and nickel surging up 3% on a bullish day on the London metals market (LME).
The Aussie SPI Futures are pointing to a flat open for the S&P/ASX200 index, probably opening around the 4275 points level, on mixed leads and taking into account most traders are probably hungover form yesterday. There are no local data releases, with a pause in corporate earnings season with Pharmaxis (PXS) reporting.
Trading Day will cover the Asian market session and the “ASX8” stocks after the close in the afternoon.