IG Markets Morning Prices

Good morning,

In the US on Friday, the major indices all finished basically flat as investors continued to weigh strength in US economic data against the continued backdrop of European sovereign debt concerns.

For the session, the technology heavy NASDAQ was the best performer, rising 0.2% while the S&P 500 added 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%.

Domestically, the ASX 200 is called to open the week basically unchanged at 4765 following the very quiet session on Wall Street. Having said that, the US materials and financial sectors were the best performers on Saturday night so we may see some outperformance here.

There could be some buying pressure among materials and resource names today after the US basic materials sector added 0.8% in Friday evening trade. On the London Metals Exchange, base metals were flat to stronger while in normal equities trade, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton rose 0.3% and fell 0.2% respectively. BHP Billiton’s ADR is calling the locally listed entity 0.2% firmer at $45.12.

We could also see some strength among financials after US peers had a solid session. Citigroup was the top performer, up 2.4% while Bank of America added 0.4% and Morgan Stanley 0.9%.

Elsewhere, it was mostly small gains across most of the other sectors apart from the industrials space, which saw modest declines and could weigh slightly on local trade.

In summary, it looks like a very quiet start to the Christmas shortened week as participants replace Bloomberg screens with Christmas parties and champagne.

In the currency markets, the AUDUSD weakened slightly on Friday night to finish the session at 0.9882, off lows of 0.9839. The EUR also saw some selling, trading as low as 1.3132 before settling around 1.3184.

Market Price at 8:00am AEST Change Since Australian Market Close Percentage Change
AUD/USD 0.9874 -0.0035 -0.35%
ASX (cash) 4765 2 0.04%
US DOW (cash) 11493 6 0.05%
US S&P (cash) 1243.5 1 0.09%
UK FTSE (cash) 5875 -10 -0.17%
German DAX (cash) 6990 -31 -0.45%
Japan 225 (cash) 10311 24 0.23%
Rio Tinto Plc (London) 44.18 0.12 0.27%
BHP Billiton Plc (London) 25.00 -0.05 -0.20%
BHP Billiton Ltd. ADR (US) (AUD) 45.12 0.09 0.19%
US Light Crude Oil (Feb) 88.87 0.26 0.29%
Gold (spot) 1375.3 -0.1 -0.01%
Aluminium (London) 2336 -1 -0.04%
Copper (London) 9130 -10 -0.11%
Nickel (London) 24855 105 0.42%
Zinc (London) 2300 22 0.97%
RBA Cash Rate to be raised by 25bp (Feb) (%) 7.50 0.00 0.00%

IG Markets provides round-the-clock CFD trading on currencies, indices and commodities. The levels quoted in this email are the latest tradeable price for each market. The net change for each market is referenced from the corresponding tradeable level at yesterday’s close of the ASX. These levels are specifically tailored for the Australian trader and take into account the 24hr nature of global markets.

Please contact IG Markets if you require market commentary or the latest dealing price.

ENDS

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