Good morning and welcome to the first edition of the CFD Report for 2012.

International markets pulled back on Friday night, with traders and investors booking profits ahead of the long weekend in the US - markets will be closed tonight for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

In Europe the FTSE shed 26 points (-0.5%) to settle at 5637, whilst the CAC (-0.1%) and DAX (-0.6%) also lost ground.

Stateside, the Dow gave up 49 points (-0.4%) to settle at 12422, whilst the S&P and tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.5% each.

The US trade deficit widened from US$43.5 billion to US$47.5 billion in November – above forecasts of a US$45bn deficit, whilst consumer confidence rose from 69.9 to an 8-month high of 74.0, above forecasts.

The Aussie dollar lost ground on Friday night and will open around US$1.03 this morning, whilst the euro weakened for a second consecutive session, reaching an 11-year low against the yen after S&P stripped France of its top credit rating.

Oil was weaker, shedding 0.4% to US$99.03 a barrel. Base metals eased slightly in response to a firmer US dollar. Gold fell 1% to US$1,643 an ounce.

In company news, Leighton Holdings says it expects to report a first half underlying profit of $270 million, higher than previous estimates of a $250 million result.

Today's session will bring us data in the form of the Melbourne Institute inflation gauge (10:30am, AEDT), ANZ job ads and home loans, (11:30am, AEDT).

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Morning Market Analysis: Welcome Back is a post from: Australian Stock Report Market Pulse Blog