After the huge gains in the previous session, international markets pulled a touch overnight.

In Europe the FTSE gave up 16 points (-0.3%) to settle at 5489, whilst the CAC (-0.8%) and DAX (-0.9%) lost more ground.

Stateside, the Dow Jones slipped 26 points (-0.2%) to settle at 12020, whilst the S&P 500 (-0.2%) suffered a similar retreat but the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced.

Better-than-forecast US manufacturing growth wasn't enough to extend the biggest three-day gain in the S&P since March 2009.

The Canadian dollar notched up a sixth consecutive winning session against the greenback, its longest winstreak since January, whilst the euro pared gains against the US dollar and yen.

Oil fell for the first time in five sessions following the release of the latest jobless claims which showed an increase of 6,000, to 402,000 last week. Crude shed 16 cents to settle at US$100.20 a barrel.

In company news, the big four banks have had their credit rating cut by S&P amid concerns over their vulnerability to another global credit crunch.

There is no major local data due out for today's session.

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Morning Market Analysis: Quiet Night is a post from: Australian Stock Report Market Pulse Blog