daytrade diaries... february 10 part 2

Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks kicked higher this morning but were unable to hold all the gains after dips in consumer confidence and home loans and a cautious outlook from BHP.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 40 points or 0.9% at 4545 but well off the morning high of 4570. The big banks dragged on the market after CBA delivered a net profit close to $3 billion. The financial sector was recently off 0.1%. Property trusts and resource stocks fronted this morning's gains.

Consumer confidence slipped for the third month in four. The WBC/MI consumer sentiment index slid 2.6% this month to 117 index points after last month's rise to 120.1. "Households do not expect rates to have peaked," said Westpac chief economist Bill Evans.

New home loans dropped for a third straight month in December. Home loans fell 5.5%, slightly worse than the 5% fall that market observers expected.

BHP beat market expectations with this morning's earnings result but it was still the Big Australian's weakest first-half profit in four years. The company raised its dividend but cautioned that future growth was susceptible to monetary tightening and developments in China.

Asian markets were stronger. Japan's Nikkei rallied 1.1%, Shanghai 0.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.6%. Dow futures were at +14.

Crude oil futures eased 46 cents this morning to $73.48 a barrel. The spot gold price was up 50 cents at $1,076.30 an ounce.


Never easy to trade these big gap-up openings for intraday gains but I caught ILU and GDA on dips for bounce profits. Well done to ADN/VOR/SSN traders.