Daytrading December 1 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares rallied for the first time in four sessions as energy stocks surged on news of an oil production cap and Chinese factory activity hit a two-year high.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 32 points or 0.6% firmer at 5473 with oil majors leading the charge.  The energy sector jumped 7.1% after OPEC announced a deal to cut production, the first cut in eight years. The oil cartel will lower output by 1.2 million barrels of oil per day, surprising analysts who had downplayed the likelihood of a deal.

"This should be a wake-up call for sceptics who have argued the death of OPEC,” Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects, told Bloomberg. “The group wants to push inventories down.”

Also strong was the metal & mining sector, up 2.7% after China's official manufacturing gauge improved to 51.7 last month from an October reading of 51.2. The reading was the purchasing managers' index's strongest since July 2014.

The materials sector gained 2.4%. Also strong: financials +0.8%, consumer discretionary +0.5% and health +0.4%. The gold sector sagged 3.1%, utilities 1.7% and industrials 1.2%.

China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.52%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.67% and Japan's Nikkei 2.27%. Dow futures were recently ahead seven points or 0.04%.

Crude oil futures pared last night's 9% charge with a retrace of 26 cents or 0.53% this morning to US$49.18 a barrel. Gold futures continued to fade, lately down $5.20 or 0.44% at US$1,168.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.9 US cents.


Let's hear it for cartels. Mad world. A cartel announces plans to artificially prop prices and the market applauds. So much for market capitalism. Hooray for paying more at the pump to prop up the crooks running the oil producers. Can't even make up the difference on-market because the big gains from these sorts of overnight events are baked into opening prices here. Trading: got a couple of pips from BSR then jumped aboard the BLK bronco. Gulp.