The ASX 200 is eyeing a modest gain this morning after Wall Street broke out of its festive season torpor on Friday.

The S&P 500 (+1.3%), the Nasdaq (+1.8%) and Dow (+0.8%) all made solid gains, but overall, they lost ground over the week.

Following that late session momentum, the ASX 200 futures point to a 0.3% rise this morning.

The US buying was spurred on by some bargain hunters spotting value in the so-called Santa Claus Rally that never arrived.

“After the late-in-the-year weakness, and a very oversold market, we finally saw some buyers step in,” Carson Group chief market strategist, Ryan Detrick told Reuters.

“Obviously the past week-and-a-half has been disappointing for the bulls, but volume has been light and there hasn’t been a lot of news.”

“Let’s just remember, starting next week, on Monday, that’s when a lot of the big money managers come back to the desk.”

Globally, it was a mixed bag.

The broad MSCI index rose 0.9%, but Europe was a drag with both the Eurostoxx 600 and the FTSE slipping on low volumes.

The US dollar was marginally stronger after manufacturing data pointing to stronger than expected activity.

US Treasury yields also rose slightly on the better-than-expected economic news and the belief that this week’s jobs’ data would also be strong, undermining the case for deeper interest rate cuts.

Oil rose on the back of higher demand due to cold weather in Europe and another batch of pro-growth policy announcements in China.

The news out of China on Friday that its central bank would shift ground on monetary policy by increasing issuance of long-dated bonds, and perhaps cutting official rates, also supported the likes of copper and iron ore prices,

Gold enjoyed a solid week (+0.8%) but slipped on Friday in response the stronger US dollar.