Daytrading March 23 afternoon

Thanks Jim for the double-shift this morning. Bear in mind that efficiency around here is usually punished with more work.


Half-time round-up:

The share market's gentle downward drift into the Easter weekend continued this morning as a terrorist atrocity in Europe gave investors another reason to sit on their hands.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 26 points or 0.5% lower at 5141 as a broad sell-off pushed all sectors lower except the defensive consumer staples (+0.9%) and property trusts (+0.1%). Hardest hit were gold -2.9%, metals & mining -1.6%, materials -1.1% and energy -1.1%. Overnight, European and US stocks logged modest falls after attacks in Brussels killed at least 31 people.

“This is a reflection of broader geopolitical risks out there,” Chris Green, strategist at First NZ Capital, told Bloomberg. “Usually such attacks will have only a short term impact. Investors' focus remains on macro-economic fundamentals and we do need to see more signs of sustainability in the US economy and some stability in the Chinese data. I’m somewhat cautious given the recent rally we’ve seen.”

The ASX has tracked sideways for more than a week since a strong rebound from the February low ran out of puff at the start of last week.

"Markets this year have been characterised by consistent directional trends. Once underway, these trends year have been underpinned by solid momentum," CMC chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Fairfax. "However, buyers appear to have run out of steam in both equity and commodity markets at the moment. Traders are waiting for underlying fundamentals to catch up with current pricing in commodity markets and there is scope for retracement if this does not happen soon."

Asian markets were mixed but little changed. China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.16%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.02% and Japan's Nikkei edged up 0.09%. Dow futures were recently off 13 points or 0.07%.

Crude oil futures retraced 42 cents or 1% this morning to US$41.03 a barrel. Gold futures were $4 softer at US$1,244.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.41 US cents.


Recent action suggests the XJO may be establishing a new trading range between 5100 and 5200. Been knocked back on the two occasions it poked its head higher and supported the two times it went lower. Trading: messy morning. Locked in profits in ILU and BRB, but need arvo rebounds in ILU (in again), MIN and YOW before the day can be declared a success. Been a challenging week. Eked out a piddling profit each session but it has been hard graft for low rewards.