THE MARCUS TODAY MORNING MEETING – Wednesday 11th January

The ASX 200 is up 52 points (+0.7%) at 7183 points. Sectors are mostly up. Metals and Materials leading the way up 2% and 1.8%. Gold recovered yesterday’s loses, up 1.7%. Defensives are up, with Staples and Consumer Disc both up 0.7% and 0.8%.  Interest rate-sensitive tech performing the worst Info-Tech down 1% and All Tech Index down 0.3%. Most Banks moving higher CBA +0.2%, NAB +1.1%, WBC 0.1%, ANZ +0.7%, and the Big bank Basket up 0.4% to $181.13. Azure Minerals (AZS) up 24.4% after SQM invests $20m for a ~20% stake.  Westgold Resources (WGX) up 6.7% after reporting increased gold production.  US CPI numbers tomorrow night. US results season starts Friday. Dow Futures are up 121 points, and NASDAQ Futures are up 13 points.Anyone who has been in broking will tell you that the Morning Meeting is how all brokers start the day. The format is to have a quick look at the overnight markets, consider what's coming up in the day ahead, hear from the analysts, share ideas and get set up for the day's stock market activity.