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IG Markets - morning thoughts and opening prices
IG Markets - morning thoughts and opening prices
European markets gained ground overnight, as investors shrugged off news of the S&P downgrades and took comfort in a successful French Treasury bill sale. US markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday. S&P followed up by stripping the EFSF of its AAA credit rating to AA+, which it had warned might happen in the event that one of its guarantor nations lost its AAA rating. Despite Friday’s ratings downgrades, French yields actually cooled in a sign that investors are paying less attention to the rating agencies.
The Dax climbed 1.3% to close at 6220, the CAC put on 0.9% to finish at 3225 and the FTSE added 0.4% to close at 5657.
ECB President Mario Draghi played down the significance of rating agencies on the back of Friday’s S&P downgrades. Mr Draghi acknowledged that Europe remains in a tough position, but feels markets had already anticipated these ratings changes. Markets have come off their highs since Draghi’s comments and the EFSF downgrade.
Commodities had a fairly solid night, with gains for gold, copper and oil. This could be supportive of our resource stocks, which gave up significant ground in yesterday’s session. Ahead of the open, we are calling the Aussie market up 0.3% at 4160. There is a lot of key data out of China today, with GDP numbers, fixed asset investment, industrial production and retail sales data set to be released at 1pm. A figure of around 8.7% quarterly GDP growth is expected. The China data could result in some big movements in the currency space and potentially dictate trade in equities.
| Market | Price at 8:30am AEST | Change Since Australian Market Close | Percentage Change |
| AUD/USD | 1.0307 | 0.0028 | 0.27% |
| ASX (cash) | 4160 | 13 | 0.31% |
| US DOW (cash) | 12455 | 58 | 0.47% |
| US S&P (cash) | 1295.0 | 8 | 0.62% |
| UK FTSE (cash) | 5658 | 44 | 0.78% |
| German DAX (cash) | 6206 | 90 | 1.47% |
| Japan 225 (cash) | 8409 | 55 | 0.66% |
| Rio Tinto Plc (London) | 35.89 | 0.28 | 0.79% |
| BHP Billiton Plc (London) | 20.80 | 0.35 | 1.71% |
| BHP Billiton Ltd. ADR (US) (AUD) | closed | - | - |
| US Light Crude Oil (Feb) | 99.69 | 0.83 | 0.84% |
| Gold (spot) | 1644.0 | 4 | 0.24% |
| Aluminium (London) | 2163.00 | 18 | 0.84% |
| Copper (London) | 8089.00 | 89 | 1.11% |
| Nickel (London) | 19425.00 | -175 | -0.89% |
| Zinc (London) | 1961.00 | 1 | 0.05% |
| RBA Cash Rate to be decreased by 25bp (Feb) (%) | 72.00 | 0 | 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.
www.igmarkets.com.au
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