IG Markets Morning Prices

On Wall Street overnight, US stocks staged a late session rally to pare earlier losses following a weaker-than-expected jobless claims report and concerns over the foreclosure practices of major banks. After the closing bell, Google reported Q3 profit that topped analysts' forecasts on increasing demand for the search giant's online advertising.

The broad-based S&P 500 was the worst performer, down 0.4% while the Nasdaq fell 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the session flat.

Locally, the ASX 200 is called to open the session largely unchanged at 4700 following the slightly weaker US trade. All US sectors were flat to lower, with heavy falls among financials and materials doing most of the damage.

Local financials are likely to come under pressure following a 1.8% fall for the sector overnight. Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were all down more than 4% as home seizures reached a record high in September. Clearly investors are afraid at the potential for a lot of mortgage debt to end up back on banks' balance sheets. It was announced that all 50 states will participate in a coordinated inquiry as whether or not banks and loan servicers used false documents and signatures to justify hundreds of thousands of foreclosures.

Elsewhere, we may also see some selling among material names following a fall of 1% for the US basic materials sector. Base metal leads from the London Metals Exchange were all weaker while Rio Tinto added 2.4% and BHP Billiton gave up 0.1%. BHP Billiton's ADR is calling the locally listed entity 0.1% softer on the open.

In summary, it looks like being a flat to slightly lower open today following the US leads. With nothing in the way of economic news, trade is likely to be fairly subdued unless we see any serious movements among Asian markets.

The AUDUSD could see some further profit taking after it set a new post-float high of 0.9993 overnight before retreating. Its currently hovering around 0.9935.