Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: The ASX...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The ASX reached the halfway mark of the last full day of trade before Christmas on track for a fourth gain and a new 2016 closing high on low, holiday-affected volume.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 16 points or 0.3% ahead at 5629, a level last seen in August 2015. A broad market rally was spearheaded by consumer staples +1.1%, industrials +0.7% and telecoms +0.6%. Financials gained 0.4% and materials 0.25%.

"It's always nice to end the year on a high," IG strategist Chris Weston told Fairfax. "There almost seems to be a sellers strike through global equity markets and that is certainly true of the Aussie market. Short sellers have largely shut up shop until the New Year, understanding that at an index level bad news is not impacting sentiment at all."

China's Shanghai Composite inched up 0.05% in early trade. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei both shed 0.28%. Dow futures slid nine points or 0.05%.

Crude oil futures bounced 13 cents or 0.25% this morning to US$52.62 a barrel. Gold futures were 30 cents or 0.03% weaker at US$1,132.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.54 US cents.


The Xmas lull is well and truly upon us. Haven't made a brass razoo today. NUH nearly made it into my buy zone but reversed a pip too early. Risk: reward just wasn't there on anything else I looked at. Been a good week until today, so not overly bothered. Looking at the broader market, I reckon we could see a decent pullback when things get back near normal in the new year. Simply too much good news built into US share prices, supported more by optimism than fact, so far at least.