The share market pared yesterday's heavy loss as most Asian markets recovered after solid US economic data steadied nerves on Wall Street overnight.
By lunchtime the ASX 200 had regained less than half of yesterday's 80-point dive, tradings 30 points or 0.6% higher at 5242. A broad rally raised all sectors except gold -2.6%. The best returns came in consumer discretionary +1.5%, property trusts +1.1%, IT +1% and the Small Ordinaries +1%.
The rebound followed news of upbeat US retail sales and business inventories data that helped ease concerns over the strength of the US economy.
"Even though the Fed will probably continue tapering, it will be largely offset by the fairly robust US economy," Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors, told Bloomberg. "That will see share markets bounce back again today. But the volatility we are going through will continue a little bit longer given that investor confidence is running at a quite high level."
China's Shanghai Composite resumed its downtrend, falling 0.25% in early trade. Hong Kong's Hang Seng put on 0.53% and Japan's Nikkei 1.69%. Dow futures were recently off four points or less than 0.1%.
Spot gold eased another $3.70 this morning to US$1,240.30 an ounce. Crude oil futures rose two cents to US$92.52 a barrel. The dollar was buying 89.42 US cents.
Been a pretty half-hearted rally, considering the scale of the drop yesterday. Doesn't suggest much enthusiasm for higher levels. Trading: a straight-forward morning here. Used the tepid bounce in NEN to get out for a small profit. A genuine bounce could come any time, but I don't have any conviction about the next direction. Been a great trader over the last few sessions. GER also gave a couple of bounce scalps for a decent wage.
