Believe it or not but the overnight futures market has the ASX 200 opening flat this morning, despite another surge on Wall Street overnight that saw the Dow briefly breach the 23,000 level for the first time in its 121-year history.
The weak overnight session (the index was in the red for much of the night) came after the ASX 200 enjoyed its 8th straight rise on Tuesday with a 42 point jump to 5,889. That took the current surge so far to 4.2% and 238 points.
In New York the Dow index has surpassed four similar 1,000-point milestones this year, indicating investor confidence in the bull-run despite high stock valuations and a gain of more than 16% year to date.
But it was a different story for broader market which will it ended higher, was weighed down by losses in industrial, financial and technology stocks.
The Dow climbed as high as 23,002.2, then eased and ended under the 23,000 level but managed a gain of 0.2% to a new record close of 22,997.44.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to close at a record high of 2,559.36 — led by a 1.3% rally in the healthcare sector that was partially offset by a 0.6% slide in financials despite reasonable reports from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley early in the session..The Nasdaq Composite ended the day flat at 6,623.66.
Comex gold fell more than $US12 an ounce in New York to end around $US1,288 an ounce, but US oil futures edged higher for a gain of around 14 cents to $US52 a barrel.
Comex December silver futures slid a nasty 32.8 cents, or 1.9%, to $US17.041 an ounce and Comex December copper which saw highest settlement since early August 2014 on Monday, lost 4.4 cents, or 1.3%, to $US3.196 a pound.
And the Metal Bulletin’s 62% Iron Ore Index ended at $US62.72 per tonne on Tuesday, down 22 cents.
