Daytrading September 12 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares suffered their biggest setback since Brexit, diving 2.2% after the uneasy calm on global markets was shattered by heavy selling on Friday and US equity futures hinted at further weakness tonight.  

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 117 points weaker at 5223 and on track for its lowest close since the second week of July. Resource stocks copped the brunt of a broad sell-off as the prospect of higher interest rates in the US drove investors out of commodities and other alternative assets and into the greenback. The gold sector tumbled 3.8%, metals & mining 3.6%, energy 3.7% and small caps 2.7%. Consumer staples was the best of the sectors with a decline of 0.9%.

The rout came after hawkish comments from members of the European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve last week raised concerns that central banks are losing faith in the power of record low interest rates to drive economic growth.

“Central banks are reluctant to add additional stimulus and that’s causing a lot of concern,” Niv Dagan, executive director at Peak Asset Management, told Bloomberg. “We expect additional downside in the near term. You want to wait and see and remain cautious.”

US equity futures and Asian markets flashed red this morning. China's Shanghai Composite shed 1.56%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 2.45% and Japan's Nikkei 1.53%. Dow futures were recently down 129 points or 0.72%.

Crude oil futures sagged another 83 cents or 1.81% this morning to US$45.05 a barrel. Gold futures were $3.20 or 0.31% softer at US$1,331.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.25 US cents.


Not a sniff of a bounce so far, which suggests the weight of money expects further weakness. Dollar taking a hiding. Those negative US futures obviously don't help, though they are not a reliable indicator this far out. The XSO is copping it harder than most, which is not unreasonable given its relative outperformance v the XJO. Still money to be made in these conditions. Had to brush down my GFC sell-off strategies, but was too bearish to get many fills at the open. SVL was the best of the bunch. SYD and FXJ just below break-even. TSV gave a bounce opp later.