Standby for lift-off fellow Fools! Our market is primed to shoot higher on the back of a string of positive cues from offshore markets this morning and could finish the day at a two-month high.
US and European shares rallied hard after the European Central Bank (ECB) said it will consider injecting fresh stimulus before the end of this year to combat sagging growth and deflation threats in the region, and a number of US companies reported better than expected quarterly earnings.
Investors have become stimulus junkies and the ECB's signal is expected to drive the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) 1.7% higher at the open.
You can understand the excitement. Global equities have surged since the global financial crisis thanks to record low interest rates and central banks opening the liquidity floodgates by buying copious amounts of government bonds and other securities to ensure the oversupply of cash in the financial system.
There's no reason to think any fresh ECB stimulus will have any different of an effect on global equities.
But it's not only stocks that will benefit. Commodity prices rallied on the back of the news too with the West Texas Intermediate oil price jumping 0.5% to $US45.43 a barrel despite US oil inventories rising by twice what the market was expecting, and copper rising for the first time in five days by 1% to $US2.3830 a pound.
It's not the firmer oil price that will keep Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) under the spotlight though. The debt-laden energy company is considering selling a 3.6% stake in the PNG LNG project to Japanese trading house Marubeni Corporation in a deal that could be worth up to $2 billion, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Santos is also expected to release its quarterly production report and has rejected a takeover bid from Scepter.
The wave of merger & acquisition activity in the resources sector will be further fueled by comments from BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) that the Big Australian thinks it is approaching a sweet spot for takeover deals.
BHP may abandon its very conservative stance to takeovers and this development, along with fresh ECB stimulus, could mark the bottom of the resources rout.
But don't expect consensus on this bullish view. Goldman Sachs has downgraded base metals miner Independence Group NL (ASX: IGO) to "sell" from "neutral" and cut its recommendation on gold producer Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) to "neutral" from "buy" following its warning that the selloff in commodity producers is not over.
Meanwhile, copper miners OZ Minerals Limited (ASX: OZL) and Sandfire Resources NL (ASX: SFR) will also find themselves in the spotlight as they hand in their quarterly production numbers.
Supermarket giant Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW) is another that will dominate headlines after Bloomberg reported that a number of private equity firms have approached the embattled retailer to sell its Big W department store for around $1.5 billion.
It will certainly be a tempting offer as Woolies needs the cash and Big W is being left in the dust by rivals owned by Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES).
Wealth manager AMP Limited (ASX: AMP) is another to watch as the company released its quarterly update showing a 3% drop in assets under management to $111.1 billion in the September quarter. But that isn't stopping AMP from considering expanding its funds business.
Finally, all eyes will be on our national carrier Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) and online auto classifieds company Carsales.Com Ltd (ASX: CAR) too as both will hold their annual general meeting today.
