Daytrading July 7 afternoon

Thanks Lioness and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Resource stocks steered the ASX higher this morning, but the index struggled to hold gains after Standard & Poor's downgraded its outlook for the nation's credit rating.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 22 points or 0.4% higher at 5219 and on track for its first advance in three sessions. Earlier the index advanced as high as 5244 after Wall Street rallied on signs that the Federal Reserve is reluctant to raise rates until it sees how Brexit plays out and whether the US economy regathers steam. The S&P turned early losses into a final gain of 0.54%.

“The main takeaway from the minutes is the uncertainty in the mind of the Fed has increased, which we can all understand given the weak May jobs data and recent UK referendum,” Jon Adams, portfolio manager at BMO Global Asset Management in the US, told Bloomberg. “This is another sign that the Fed’s not going to do too much to upset the apple cart. They’re looking for any excuse not to raise rates at this point.”

The rally stalled after S&P downgraded its outlook for Australia to 'negative' from 'stable' following the weekend's inconclusive federal election. The dollar fell almost half a cent before staging a partial recovery to 75.05 US cents.

Energy stocks led the rally, rising 1.9%, followed by metals & mining +1.5%, materials +1.4% and gold +1.2%. Drags on the market included utilities -1.8%, telecoms -0.3% and health -0.2%.

China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.17%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.91% and Japan's Nikkei lost 0.23%. Dow futures were recently down 12 points or 0.07%.

Crude oil futures improved 22 cents or 0.46% this morning to US$47.65 a barrel. Gold futures were $3.50 or 0.26% firmer at US$1,370.50 an ounce.


Trading: some big moves this morning. RAP paid off in the end. Still waiting for CIM and TAH to come good. I have not made life easy for myself this week... Roll on the weekend.