That’s better. US and European stocks nearly erased Friday’s sell off overnight, as the Dow had its best single day in three weeks.
As a result, our market will start with a gain of more than 30 points this morning, around half the 45 point fall yesterday.
Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn Stevens hinted in a speech in New York early today that the central bank could move on rates at its May meeting.
He told a lunch in New York that the Reserve Bank has “clearly signalled a willingness” to lower interest rates further and the question of whether interest rates should be reduced “has to be on the table.”
Traders took those comments to mean that a rate cut was coming next week and the Aussie dollar fell sharply.
European markets rose solidly – markets in London, Germany, France and Italy all showed solid gains, with German’s Dax jumping 1.7% after its worst slide in theee years last week of more than 5%.
But markets in Asia were weaker after the moves by China to try and cool investor enthusiasm, and then the later move to cut the reserve ratio for banks and release an estimated $US200 billion for lending – much of which will go into the markets.
The Hong Kong market fell more than 2%, Shanghai by 1.6%.
Gold eased, oil edged up and the Aussie dollar eased to around 77.30 US cents.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9% overnight Monday to close at 2,100.40, lifted by gains in the utility and technology sectors ahead of closely watched earnings reports.
The Dow jumped 209 points and closed 1.2% higher at 18,034.93. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.3% to 4,994.60.
The dollar index, which measures the performance of the greenback against its largest trading partners, climbed 0.4 per cent to 97.92.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was little changed at $US63.43 a barrel, while in New York West Texas Intermediate rose 1% to $US56.31 a barrel.
Comex gold fell around $US8 an ounce to $US1,195 in New York.
Brokers said the stimulus move by China’s central bank was the key positive factor overnight, outweighing fears about Greece’s possible default after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Friday night, our time.
