daytrades september 21 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Australian shares rolled over in morning trade after the Reserve Bank flagged likely interest rate rises in the months ahead.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 2 points or 0.05% at 4628 and well off the session high of 4664 set shortly after the opening bell. Cyclical sectors outperformed traditional defensive shares early in the session but gave up gains as the morning wore on. At 1pm, the mining and financial sectors were both off 0.2%.

The minutes from the September RBA policy meeting released this morning point to higher interest rates if the recent shaky revival in the global economy continues. The cash rate has been steady at 4.5% since May.

"The central scenario remained for the Australian economy to grow at trend pace, or a bit above, over the next few years," the minutes said. "While policy had to be alert to these risks, members considered that if the central scenario came to pass it was likely that higher interest rates would be required."

The dollar neared 95 U.S. cents overnight, its highest level since last July, and was recently buying 94.53 U.S. cents.

"With the Australian dollar pushing up towards 95 US cents and gold heading up towards $US1300 an ounce, there is an aura of excitement in the market at the moment," CMC Markets analyst David Taylor told Fairfax. "I think all it will take is a bit of a side-swipe from the US and we will be flat on our back, but at this point the easiest ride seems to be up."

Asian markets followed Wall Street's overnight lead. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4% in morning trade, Shanghai 0.14% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.11%. Dow futures were recently at -13.

Crude oil futures sank 34 cents lower this morning to $74.26 a barrel. The spot gold price was 20 cents stronger at $1,278.30 an ounce.


The morning hasn't lived up to early expectations, with the best prices of the day coming in the first 10 minutes in many cases. Breakout trades are the most reliable on big green days and HST delivered an underwhelming 5 points before topping out. Nice bounce trade in LYC - in and out in two minutes for a day's wage. Love those quickies. Back in now. Small speculator opened in VIL.