Stocks seen little changed on opening
U.S. stocks are expected to open the first trading day of 2009 near steady levels, with support from overnight gains in Europe and Asia countered by a weak tone in energy. Mining stocks were up in Europe amid gains for industrial metals, even though gold was down. Tech stocks and phone component companies were higher in Asia, but several key markets were closed for the holiday. The Dow is expected to open about down about 5 points, while the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was seen opening flat at 499.45.
Volume promises to be extremely light, which could make for choppy, uneven trading throughout the session. Stocks in Europe were up about 2% overnight and most of the Asia markets were higher as well. Hong Kong was up 4.5%, Singapore up 3.8%, South Korea was up 3.2% and Australia was down 0.2%. Markets in Japan, China and Taiwan were closed for the holiday. Stocks in India were up 0.5% after the central bank slashed interest rates by 100 basis points.
Individual stocks on the move overnight included General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM), which jumped some 15% in pre-market trading as the firm received the first $4 billion in bridge loans.
At 10:00 a.m. ET, the market will receive data on manufacturing from the ISM Manufacturing Survey, which could help set the tone for activity.
From a charting perspective, the market pushed through key technical resistance on Wednesday at 491, which marked the first daily close above a previous correction bounce since the collapse began back in mid-September. Downside support is just below the market at 497, with the big point today at 491. Below there, support is down at 481. On the upside, there is very little resistance of note until the Russell gets close to 514.50.
