MARKET TALK: S&P/ASX 200 Offshore Leads Bullish

20th Jul 2010 00:32

2332 GMT [Dow Jones] S&P/ASX 200 offshore leads bullish, with overnight SPI 200 futures up 41 points, or 0.9%, at 4423.0, after Wall Street rallied on stronger-than-expected building approvals data and speculation the Fed could stop paying interest rates on excess bank reserves. DJIA up 0.7% to 10229.96, S&P 500 up 1.1% to 1083.48, Nasdaq up 1.1% to 2222.49. All three formed bullish key reversal patterns. After the bell, Apple is up 2.5% on positive results, although Yahoo! is down 6.5% on earnings disappointment. In regular trading, IBM and Texas Instruments results disappointed the market and U.S. June housing starts fell 5.0% vs 3.2% fall expected. But June building permits rose 2.1% vs 0.7% rise expected, signalling potential upturn in future housing activity. S&P 500 Financials up 1.2%, with GS up 2.2% after adjusted profit beat expectations. S&P 500 Materials up 2.9%, with Alcoa up 2.6%, Vale up 6.7%, Freeport up 5.7%, US Steel up 7.5%, Barrick Gold up 1.6%. BHP Billiton (BHP.AU) ADRs at equivalent A$39.16 (based on AUD/USD at 0.8828) vs local close at A$38.30. London listed BHP up 3.1%, Rio (RIO.AU) up 4.1%. S&P 500 Energy up 1.9%, with Chevron up 1.5%. S&P 500 Industrials up 1.6%, with Harley Davidson up 13.6% after results swung to profit. S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary up 1.5%. S&P 500 consumer staples up 1.5%, with Johnson & Johnson down 2.0% after cutting its 2010 earnings forecast and PepsiCo up 4.3%. Nymex crude up 0.9% at US$77.58. Spot gold at US$1,191.40 vs US$1,183.70 this time Monday. EUR/USD at 1.2892 vs 1.2942. AUD/USD at 0.8830 vs 0.8684. LME copper up 2.0%, zinc up 3.7%, aluminum flat, nickel up 1.6%. S&P/ASX 200 last 4403.6. ([email protected]) Contact us in Singapore. 65 64154 140; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 20, 2010 19:32 ET (23:32 GMT)