daytrading feb 8 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The share market is tracking towards an 11th winning week from 12, rallying for a third straight day after the Reserve Bank hinted at further rate cuts.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead by 25 points or 0.5% at 4961. A close at that level would secure a weekly rise of roughly 40 points. Gold stocks led the advance, rising 3.3%, followed by the consumer discretionary sector +1.3%, energy +1.2% and health +1.2%. The only sectors to lose ground were traditional defensives, including property trusts -1.1% and utilities -0.4%.

The market "has been quite resilient throughout the morning session," OptionsXpress market analyst Ben Le Brun told Fairfax. "We had some negative leads to work off, and obviously some negativity out of the euro zone. But the market has just continued onward and upward."

There was little initial reaction to a downgraded growth outlook from the Reserve Bank, but the market gathered steam as traders put a positive spin on a weak inflation outlook. The central bank cut its GDP expectations for 2013 to a range of 2-3% from 2.25-3.25% and said its inflation forecast left room for further rate cuts.

"The current inflation outlook would afford scope to ease policy further, should that be necessary to support demand," the bank said.

Asian markets were mixed ahead of Chinese economic data this afternoon. Shanghai rallied 0.47% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng put on 0.16%. Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.54%. Dow futures were recently unchanged.

Spot gold dropped another $2.90 to US$1,669.50 an ounce this morning. Crude oil futures rallied 10 cents to US$95.90 a barrel. The dollar was buying $US1.0274.


Can't keep this market down. Just keeps grinding higher. Still, there wasn't a lot of action at the spec end, so far as I could see. Watched ICG without ever getting a clear buy signal. However, I'm tired and complacent after a good week, so the problem may be here. Boredom and failure of imagination got me into CGF too early, so I may well be giving some back later today. Wake me up for the weekend.