DT March 13 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The ASX stumbled into a new week with modest losses as crude oil plumbed a three-month low and half the country enjoyed a public holiday.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 22 points or 0.4% weaker at 5753 as falls in the energy sector -1%, health -1% and financials -0.4% outweighed rises in gold +4.2%, telecoms +0.2% and utilities +0.1%.

The energy sector led the retreat as US crude futures slid 32 cents or 0.66% this morning to US$48.17 a barrel. Oil turned sharply south last week after data showed a big rise in US inventories as an increasing number of US producers resuming production after the OPEC cartel announced production curbs. West Texas Intermediate this morning hit its lowest level since late November.

"With the market still digesting the big increase in inventories, oil prices are likely to remain under pressure today," ANZ bank told CNBC.

China's Shanghai Composite dived 0.55%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei both added 0.17%. Dow futures were recently off four points or 0.02%.

Gold futures bounced $3 or 0.25% to US$1,204.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.51 US cents.


Today was always going to be slow with half the country MIA. Still, sheesh, I hoped for a bit more life. Scraped half a wage out of GGG and fear that could be it for the day.