Daytrading December 20 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The ASX 200 shook off a night of geopolitical violence in Europe to punch through 5600 for the first time in more than four months.

At 1pm EST Australia's benchmark index was 39 points or 0.7% ahead at 5601 after earlier reaching 5607, its second-highest point in 14 months. A close above 5587 this afternoon would be the strongest since August last year.

Gold stocks offered the best returns, bouncing 3.7% off yesterday's eight-month low. Other market hot-spots included utilities +1.6%, consumer discretionary +1.1% and consumer staples +1%. The energy sector eased 0.9% and metals & mining 0.2%.

US shares pared gains overnight after a string of violent incidents overnight in Turkey, Germany and Switzerland, including the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey.

“There are some investors who might see something like the assassination in Turkey and the potential terror attack in Berlin as opportunities to lock in profits with a couple of weeks left in the year,” Philip Orlando, chief equities strategist at Federated Investors in the US, told Bloomberg.

A subdued morning in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite drift 0.38% lower, Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.01% and Japan's Nikkei 0.06%. Dow futures were strengthened six points or 0.03%.

Crude oil futures retreated 12 cents or 0.23% this morning to US$52 a barrel. Gold futures were $3.40 or 0.3% weaker at US$1,139.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.53 US cents.


XJO looks keen to exploit the Christmas lull to push through 5600. Be nice to start 2017 well clear. All this momentum at the big end seems to have sucked some of the interest/volume from the specs. Been some heavy falls lately in a few forum favourites - IAM, CR8, perhaps NAE today. It's been noticeable over the years that tensions tend to emerge when people are licking their wounds. Try to take it easy with each other, eh? Trading: couple of great bounce opportunities this morning in IAM and CDA. Got them both near the lows but failed to squeeze enough juice out of them.