Our market is looking for another solid start to trading after its post Easter jump yesterday.
A reasonable day on most world markets (except Tokyo and Hong Kong) overnight will help our market get away to a good start.
The share price index futures market has the ASX 200 up around 22 points, about equal to the half a per cent gain in yesterday’s trading.
The futures index was up 28 points earlier in trading, but eased.
Investors will be looking to see if the big four banks again drive our market higher.
Several major drug industry deals helped push Wall Street higher, along with a couple of reasonable quarterly results.
The S&P 500 rose 7.66 points, or 0.4%, to close at 1,879.55, its 6th daily gain in a row.
That is in fact its best set of gains for seven months and leaves the index within 0.6% of its all time high.
The Dow added a solid 65.12 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 16,514.37.
And Nasdaq added 39.91 points, or 1%, to end at 4,161.46, recording its sixth consecutive day of gains, helped by a 6% rally in Netflix.
Those drug industry deals, plus reasonable results from a couple of biotechs helped push the Nasdaq Biotechnology index up 3.2%.
Comex gold for June delivery fell $US7.40, or 0.6%, to settle at $US1,281.10 in New York. The price edged up to around $US1,284 in late trading. Oil fell more than $US2 a barrel to just over $US101.
Gold prices have lost more than 1%, or about $US15 an ounce this week. The settlement overnight was the lowest level since April 1.
Comex May silver added a cent to end at $US19.36 an ounce and Comex copper rose a cent to $US3.05 a pound.
European markets all rose in the first full day of trading for many after Easter.
In Asia, Tokyo was down 0.9%, taking the fall so far this year to 11%, a more accurate indicator of the economy’s weakening performance than many investors might care to believe (see separate story).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.13%, Shanghai was down, but then rebounded to finish up 0.35%, despite a new corruption scandal involving one of the country’s biggest companies, China Resources. Australia rose as did South Korea and Taiwanese markets.
Our big four banks kept the market in the black yesterday.
Westpac and ANZ shares both hit record highs and a number of companies touched year highs.
Woolworths also stood out by touching an all time high as well in trading yesterday to add to its solid recent run up.
The ASX 200 Index rose 25.07 points, or half a per cent, to 5482.7 points, while the All Ordinaries Index was up 22.28 points, or 0.4%, to 5467.1 points.
Westpac rose 35 cents, or 1 per cent, to $35.29, and the ANZ added 40 cents, or 1.2%, to end at $34.28. The Commonwealth Bank rose 46 cents, or 0.6%, to $78.03, while NAB firmed 13 cents, or 0.4% to $35.49.
Lower iron ore prices saw BHP Billiton lose 9 cents to $38.01, while Rio Tinto dropped 1% to end at $62.74.
Woolworths was another stock to hit an all time high yesterday.
It ended at $37.98 after hitting an intra day high of $38.22.
From a recent low of $35.65 on April 14, Woolies shares have surged more than 6% or $2.33 to yesterday’s close in four days.
Companies which hit 52-week highs included CSR, Amalgamated Holdings, Drillsearch, Woodside and Bank of Queensland.
