Market Morning

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Another shaky session on equity markets overnight, as Greece debt talks were postponed again, German industrial production numbers were less than exciting, but the whole risk edifice was buoyed late in the evening by a rise in US consumer credit for December.

In detail:

The UK FTSE finished flat again, down 2 points to 5890, still well above its resistance level at 5700 points but struggling to make tractions with the German DAX also flat, down 10 points or 0.1% to 6754 points, and eyeing off the pre-correction support level (now resistance) at 7000.

The Euro (EUR/USD) slipped below 1.32 against the USD on Greek concerns again, but rallied and is currently trading at 1.325, as the USD Index slipped 0.5 points to be below 79.

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The ever resilient AUD remained strong in the light of the surprising rate hold by the RBA yesterday, the commodity proxy now trading at 1.0803, whilst Aussie 10 year bonds were sold off again, yields rising to almost 4%, at 3.95%, still below but catching up to the cash rate.

US markets were better than their Euro counterparts, but still flat, with the S&P500 Index finishing up 2 points or 0.2% at 1347 points, whilst the narrower Dow Jones gained 33 points or 0.2% to 12878 points. Finally, the tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was flat at 2904 points.

To commodities, WTI crude was steady, heading above $98USD a barrel, remaining below the “magic” $100 number. Let’s hope for US consumers that it stays that way.

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Gold had a volatile session (I know, I was up late last night trading it, apologies for the lateness this morning!) hitting a low of $1709 and a high of $1750, before consolidating to $1744USD an ounce, where it remains, now waiting for the open of the Asian session.

Silver was just as volatile, finally gaining a few cents to finish at $34.12USD per ounce on the spot markets. Metal commodities had a good day on the London metals market (LME), with aluminium up just over 1%, copper was flat, nickel also flat, and tin shooting up almost 3%.

The Aussie SPI Futures are pointing to a lower open for the S&P/ASX200 index, probably down 7 points around the 4240 points level, on these mixed leads.

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Trading Day will cover the Asian market session and the “ASX8” stocks after the close in the afternoon.

Also note that Earnings Season continues today, with all eyes on BHP–Billiton (BHP), whilst Australand Property Group (ALZ) provides full year results and Ansell (ANN) interim results amongst the major reporters.

www.twitter.com/ThePrinceMB

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