Daytrading June 8 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares pared three days of gains this morning after Wall Street hit a ten-month high overnight but closed well below its session peak.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 15 points or 0.3% weaker at 5356 as falls in metals & mining -1.2%, telecoms -1.1% and financials -0.6% outweighed advances in energy +1.6%, gold +0.7% and consumer staples +0.6%. Overnight, the S&P 500 secured its highest close since July, but faded into the finish as biotechs took a hit.

“If you look at US stocks on a global perspective, to be touching or near that high is pretty phenomenal,” Gina Martin Adams, equity strategist at Wells Fargo Securities in the US, told Bloomberg. “Yet when we look forward, we’re struggling to find that next source of growth. Maybe the drag has passed, but where is the growth going to come from? The result of that is this sideways trading market with very limited risk tolerance on the part of the broad investment community.”

Ahead of May Chinese trade data, China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.88%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.53% and Japan's Nikkei 0.33%. Dow futures were recently down 15 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures edged up four cents or 0.08% this morning to US$50.40 a barrel. Gold futures were $2.90 or 0.23% firmer at US$1,249.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 74.39 US cents.


Disappointing close in the US overnight. Nasty fade suggested a lack of confidence that we're going through the old high. Of course, it's not unusual to take a few attempts to get through well-established resistance. Fingers crossed. Chinese trade data will likely dictate how we finish today. Trading: quick round of bounce trades in the opening flurry gave profits in NTM, IBG and AGY. Quiet since the first hour.