Unlike Monday when the ASX wandered too and fro – from green to red and back to finish down for the session, the local market should be up all day Tuesday after Wall Street ended with a solid start to the final days of September.
The ASX ended Monday down 12 points in a session that saw no real lead from anywhere.
But Wall Street though rallied strongly to end its session sharply higher as investors sought bargains among sectors hardest-hit by the coronavirus.
Investors were not worried by the approaching first TV debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden or were focusing on Friday’s jobs data for September.
There few if any fears about the continuing rise in infection numbers in half the US’s 50 states and the strength of activity and the gains were in contrast to the worst week in three months last week for the Dow and the S&P 500.
All three major US stock indexes made solid gains on the heels of the longest weekly losing streak in over a year for both the S&P 500 and the Dow.
The third quarter ends tomorrow, and despite September’s monthly losses, the S&P and the Nasdaq are on track for their best two-quarter winning streaks since 2009 and 2000, respectively, according to Reuters.
The Dow rose 410.1 points, or 1.51%, to end at 27,584.06, the S&P 500 jumped 53.14 points, or 1.61%, to 3,351.6 and the Nasdaq added 203.96 points, or 1.87%, to close Monday at 11,117.53.
Just after 7 am the ASX 200 futures market was showing a gain of 35 points, the Aussie dollar was trading around 70.72, up slightly on the day and gold and oil were higher as were iron ore prices.
Iron ore added 94 cents to $US116.15, a tonne for 62% Fe fines delivered to northern China.
Oil ended higher as well – West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery added 35 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $US40.60 a barrel in New York,
Front-month November Brent was up 51 cents, or 1.2%, at $US42.43 a barrel in Europe. (The November contract expires at the end of Wednesday trading.)
December Brent, the most actively traded contract, climbed 46 cents, or 1.1%, to close at $US42.87 a barrel.
Comex December gold jumped $US16, or 0.9%, to settle at $US1,882.30 an ounce, after booking falling 4.9% last week in what was the steepest for a most-active contract since the period ended March 13. Gold prices rose in after-hours trading to be up around $US19 an ounce.
Comex December silver followed gold, adding 51 cents, or 2.2%, to reach $US23.604 an ounce.
And Comex December copper rose 0.6% to $US2.99 a pound.
