daytrades august 9 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Good to have you back. Half-time round-up:

Australian overcame early weakness following a weak lead from Wall Street to near a six-week high this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 14 points or 0.3% at 4580 largely on strength in resource sectors. Gold shares were up 1.3%, metals & mining +0.7% and materials +0.7%.

The morning's economic data again presented a mixed picture of the economy. Job ads increased 1.3% in July for a third month, suggesting continuing optimism among employers.

"Australian employers still appear upbeat about Australia's economic prospects despite heightened external risks," ANZ chief economist Warren Hogan said in a statement quoted on Fairfax websites. "While July has seen some moderation in the growth of total job advertisements, it is encouraging to see that, in contrast to the last three months, both newspaper and internet job advertisements increased in July."

However, a 3.9% fall in loans for owner-occupied homes to nine-year lows pointed to further softening in the housing market.

"It's basically telling us the housing recovery that we've seen over the last 18 months has come to an end," AMP Capital Investors chief economist Shane Oliver told Fairfax websites. "We can't rely on housing construction to continue pushing the economy ahead. We're going to be more reliant on the consumer and particularly business investment."

Asian markets were mixed, with Japan and Hong Kong in retreat but China rising. Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.1% during the morning session, while Shanghai was recently up 0.16% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.11% lower.

Crude oil futures rallied 35 cents or 0.4% this morning to $81.05 a barrel. The spot gold price eased $2.30 to $1,203.40 an ounce. The Aussie dollar was modestly lower against the major currencies, buying 91.79 U.S. cents.


Good to see our market shake off that early wobble. This is definitely a "buy the dips" market. (Until suddenly it isn't.) I caught the early run on GWT and entered IFE and MBN during the early weakness. A solid hat-trick to start the week.