The Australian equities are pointed for a strong start to the trading day after European and US shares surged as investors applaud the agreement reached by the European lawmakers in their bid to resolve the European sovereign debt crisis.
The Dow (see above chart) finished up 339.51 points at 12208.55 moving above the 12000 level for the first time since early August while the S&P500 index rallied 42.59 points to close the session at 1284.59.
The EURUSD rose the most since March 2009 briefly trading through the 1.4200 level for the first time since early September after private investors agreed to take a voluntary 50 per cent write down on their sovereign Greek bonds. The firepower of the euro-zone bailout fund will be increased to about $1.4 trillion and Greece will work to reduce its debt to 120 per cent of gross domestic product by 2020.
Both the Aussie and the Kiwi rose to a seven week highs against the USD after the European agreement helps investor sentiment supporting the demand for higher yielding assets. The AUDUSD trading up from yesterday lows of 1.0390 to as high as 1.0756.
WTI oil surged over 4 per cent trading up from lows of 90.78 to near three month highs of 94.31 after data released showed that the US economy grew by its highest level in a year.
The volatility index has traded off over 14 per cent at 25.46 which is the lowest it has been for 13 weeks.
INDICES
Last Traded
SPI 200 future 4417
S&P500 Index 1284.59
Dow Jones 12208.55
FTSE 100 Index 5713.82
COMMODITIES
Last Traded
Gold 1745.57
Oil (Nymex) 93.88
CURRENCIES
Last Traded
AUDUSD 1.0728
EURUSD 1.4190
GBPUSD 1.6103
USDJPY 75.96
Source
Bloomberg, Dow Jones News