Daytrading December 2 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares looked set to end the week with mild losses as the market retreated for the fourth time in five sessions after the US-led global 'Trump rally' ran out of puff.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 34 points or 0.6% weaker at 5466 as the metals & mining sector lost 1.1%, consumer staples 1.3% and IT 1.1%. The gold sector was the only gainer, rising 1.6% as traders sought havens.

The benchmark index started the week at 5508, but fell away before Wednesday night's OPEC meeting and this weekend's Italian referendum on constitutional reform. A strong rally inspired by energy stocks yesterday gave way to further selling today.

“Markets have rallied pretty strongly and we had three fantastic weeks but buying pressure certainly looks exhausted,” James Woods, global investment analyst at Rivkin Securities, told Bloomberg. “We will see some corrective declines and profit taking, and from a technical perspective, allowing momentum indicators to unwind before gains can be sustained.”

China-facing stocks were hammered this morning after BAL reported disappointing Chinese sales figures. Shares in the infant formula maker fell as much as 46% before paring losses. Also caught up in the sell-off were other companies with significant exposure to Chinese demand, including BGA, A2M and BKL.

The Shanghai Composite shed 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.67% and Japan's Nikkei 0.58%. Dow futures were recently off 18 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures eased 17 cents or 0.35% this morning to US$50.89 a barrel. Gold futures rallied $8.10 or 0.69% to US$1,177.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 74.3 US cents.


That BAL result took a big needle to the Chinese balloon. Always a danger when companies have seen the sort of earnings multiples that the recent Chinese mania encouraged. Hope no one was caught up in the fallout. Trading: a mediocre week has improved over the last couple of sessions and looks like ending well. Caught the absolute low in A3D today. Got a fraction of what I wanted, but a 40-pip bounce turned peanuts into something more substantial. Also got a pip from BSR and more lately had a dab at NOX.