daytrade diaries... january 20 part 2

Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks rallied this morning, boosted by an upbeat outlook from BHP and rising consumer confidence.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 20 points or 0.43% at 4881 as the industrial sector bounced back from yesterday's flogging. Leading the gains were industrials +1.2%, utilities +1.1%, property trusts +1% and consumer discretionary +1%.

Investors were cheered by record half-year iron ore, nickel, zinc and petroleum output from BHP. The miner said BHP said there had been strong price recovery "across the commodity suite", driven primarily by demand from China.

Also helping sentiment was a 5.6% jump in consumer confidence in January after two months of declines amid increases in interest rates. "This is a very strong result," Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said. "The index is seasonally adjusted and therefore takes account of traditional January optimism. Nevertheless it is still above its level of last September prior to the Reserve Bank's record three consecutive rate increases over the three months from October to December."

Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei added 0.45% but Shanghai dipped 0.63%, dragging Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.62%. Dow futures were at -3.

Crude oil futures slipped 27 cents to $78.75 a barrel. The spot gold price has just dipped $2 to $1,135.20 an ounce.


A decent morning. Scalped VLA once this morning and back on board again in the low 8s. Will hang in so long as it keeps setting higher lows and higher highs.