Overnight leads from the U.S. and European markets are to provide a boost to the Australian stock market on Wednesday.

The U.S. and European stock markets recorded fresh gains overnight with the S&P posting 0.3% increase to 1372 and the NASDAQ surged 0.7% to finish at 2987. The NASDAQ went up after Apple Inc. put in a stellar performance ahead of the launch of its new iPad.

Analysts are quite excited of the encouraging change seeing the US markets close above key levels (13,000 for the Dow and 1370 for the S&P).

IG Markets strategist Mr. Stan Shamu said "investors will now be hoping the market can hold at those levels as they consider fresh longs."

Risk assets, according to Mr Shamu, were underpinned by hopes of a strong LTRO operation and this might support the underperforming Aussie market today.

He noted that it is also a welcome breather that crude prices continued to correct lower, which will be yet another positive for equities.

"Some analysts are now fearing the big build-up for the LTRO operation later today makes the event vulnerable to end up being a 'buy the rumour, sell the fact' affair," he warned.

Analysts are positively hopeful that the Aussie market will move up between the range of 0.3% to 0.5%.

On the economic front, Australia will release have new home sales, retail sales, construction work done and private sector credit data. The economic data could make or break the Aussie dollar and it could be another interesting session.

Worley Parsons and Harvey Norman are expected to report their earnings today. With the reporting season winding down, there would be a flood of earnings reports from some companies still trying to release earnings before the deadline.

IG Markets Chart

Market

Price at 8:30am AEST

Change Since Australian Market Close

Percentage Change

AUD/USD

1.0775

-0.0016

-0.15%

ASX (cash)

4275

12

0.28%

US DOW (cash)

13007

-17

-0.13%

US S&P (cash)

1373.0

1

0.07%

UK FTSE (cash)

5924.0

-7

-0.12%

German DAX (cash)

6886

15

0.22%

Japan 225 (cash)

9791

64

0.66%

Rio Tinto Plc (London)

37.31

0.29

0.78%

BHP Billiton Plc (London)

21.20

0.31

1.48%

BHP Billiton Ltd. ADR (US) (AUD)

36.57

0.82

2.29%

US Light Crude Oil (Apr)

106.46

-1.95

-1.80%

Gold (spot)

1785.0

13.0

0.73%

Aluminium (London)

2325.00

-6

-0.26%

Copper (London)

8600.00

64

0.75%

Nickel (London)

19775.00

-380

-1.89%

Zinc (London)

2123.00

25

1.19%

RBA Cash Rate to be decreased by 25bp (Mar) (%)

18.00

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.

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