daytrade diaries... november 6 part 2

Half-time round-up:

Fresh optimism on Wall Street fuelled a regional rally this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 66 points or 1.47% at 4574, led by the industrial sector +2.2%, financials +1.9% and mining +1.5%. Asian markets also followed Wall Street higher. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.19%, South Korea's Kospi 1.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.8%.

In economic news, the Reserve Bank has ramped up its forecasts for economic growth and signalled more interest rate increases are on the way. In its quarterly outlook statement released this morning, the RBA said, "The cash rate remains at a low level, and a further gradual lessening of monetary stimulus is likely to be required over time if the economy evolves broadly as expected." The dollar jumped by a quarter of a US cent after the statement was released.

Dow futures were neutral at -9. Crude oil futures inched higher to trade recently at $79.97 a barrel. The spot gold price continued to crab sideways, recently trading at $1089.80.