MARKETS SPECTATOR: Positive mind

It was another quiet session in overnight markets as a raft of broadly in line economic data from both the US and China did little to allay concerns about the state of global growth.

All three of the major indices opened the session sharply lower before the buyers stepped in, buying the dip and sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average into positive territory by the close of the session. It finished 0.1 per cent firmer while the NASDAQ fell 0.2 per cent and the S&P 500 0.1 per cent respectively.

The underlying psychology of the market seems to be in a strong state right now. Rather than looking to sell rallies, traders are buying the dip which is a classic sign of a fundamentally sound market in terms of underlying demand and supply.

Looking ahead to the domestic session and its likely to be a fairly quiet day's trade to close out the week, although we may see some volatility in select names as the S&P/ASX 200 index undergoes its reweighting at the close of business today. Outside of this, traders will probably be more than happy to sit on their hands and observe from the sidelines ahead of the weekend. S&P/ASX 200 SPI futures are pointing towards a flat to slightly lower open around the 4395 level.

In terms of market action, we could see some weakness among local financials after US banks saw a bit of selling pressure overnight. Elsewhere, it looks like there might be some weakness too in the materials sector as offshore leads are all pointing moderately lower, although iron ore prices are still around the $US109/t mark.

So in summary its looking like a fairly lacklustre end to a relatively quiet trading week.