There were more declines on Wall Street overnight, with the Dow suffering its fourth consecutive loss despite a batch of positive economic data.

A measure of private payrolls showed US companies added 215,000 jobs in November, beating expectations for a 173,000 gain and sending a positive signal for this Friday's official employment data.

In another welcome development, new home sales for October smashed estimates, easing concerns of a slowdown in residential sector growth.

However it appeared to be a case of good news for the economy is bad news for markets, which fell on speculation the data will encourage the Fed to taper stimulus as early as this month.

The Dow slipped 25 points (-0.2%) to 15890, the S&P500 dropped two points (-0.1%) to 1793 whilst the Nasdaq added one point to 4038.

It was a different story in commodity markets, with oil surging another 1.2% to US$97.17 a barrel after data revealed the first drop in weekly US crude stockpiles in eleven weeks.

Elsewhere, gold rallied 2.1% to US$1247 an ounce, but this was likely due to short-covering as traders anticipate further declines for the yellow metal once the Fed begins winding down its stimulus program.

The US dollar was mixed against other currencies, but was up strongly versus the Aussie after yesterday's data revealed a bigger-than-expected slowdown in Australian economic growth during the third quarter.

In economic news, domestic trade balance data is due for release at 11:30am, AEDT.

Morning Market Update: Soft Start Ahead is a post from: Australian Stock Report Market Pulse Blog