daytrades may 21 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

The Australian share market tumbled to a 10-month low this morning, falling more than 3% before staging a modest recovery.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 78 points or 1.8% at 4237 after bouncing off a low of 4175, a level last seen on July 30 2009. All sectors were down as almost 19 stocks fell for every riser, according to Fairfax reports. The heaviest losses were in the health sector -4.6%, gold -3.7%, telecoms -3.5% and property trusts -3.3%.

"With all the elements behind the recent weakness continuing today we reached a snapping point, where margin calls are forcing people to sell," Shaw Stockbroking's Head of Trading, Jamie Spiteri, told MarketWatch.

The Australian dollar suffered violent swings this morning, hitting a low of 80.73 U.S. cents as investors dumped any asset seen as "risky". The dollar swung in a 2.7 U.S. cent range in the space of a few hours, recently trading at 82.4 U.S. cents after suspected buying by the Reserve Bank.

In the U.S., the Senate this morning approved legislation flagged as "the most significant increase in the regulation of U.S. banks since the Great Depression". The far-reaching bill will create a consumer protection agency, improve oversight of derivative trading and scrap proprietary trading at banks. The draft laws have still to be approved by Congress and signed off by President Obama. Read more here

Asian markets were sharply lower in morning trade. Japan's Nikkei dropped 2.5% and Shanghai 1.6%. Hong Kong and South Korea were closed for public holidays. Dow futures were recently at +11.

Crude oil futures clawed back some of their overnight losses, rallying 33 cents this morning to $69.98 a barrel. The spot gold price dropped $13 or 1.2% to $1,170 an ounce.


This has been a good morning for intraday trading - panic selling to set up entries, followed by a solid rally. Can the market go on with it? Profits taken on AGO, FMG, AZZ, SHL and DOW. This was also an exercise in damage limitation for me after an ill-considered decision to hold a few overnight - doubled up near the lows in MGX and AAX. Also held STO. All inching back towards break-even but not there yet. I may have to reach for the whip...