daytrades may 3 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Shares dipped again this morning as yesterday's intraday 'Bin Laden recovery' unravelled, Fairfax downgraded earnings and ANZ's first-half profit missed expectations.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 52 points or 1.1% at 4772, with all sectors trading negative. Resource stocks were once again worst hit, with gold shares off 2.2%, metals & mining 1.5% and energy shares 1.3%.

The financial sector was 1.2% weaker after ANZ's record first-half profit of $2.664 billion narrowly missed Bloomberg's estimate of $2.77 billion. Shares in Fairfax slumped nearly 10% after the media group downgraded its profit forecast, blaming softening advertising demand.

"Aussie markets recovered yesterday afternoon after the news of Osama bin Laden's death, so today we're seeing unwinding of that buying," Australian Stock Report head of research Geoff Saffer told Fairfax. "ANZ's results looked fairly solid, although the bank did warn warn that credit was slowing as borrowers look to pay down debt that has been accumulated in recent years."

US futures softened during a mixed morning for Asian markets. Shanghai eased 0.21% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 0.08%. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a bank holiday. Dow futures were recently at -29.

Spot gold declined another $4.20 this morning to US $1,541.50 an ounce. Crude oil futures inched 2 cents higher to US $113 a barrel. The dollar was marginally weaker, buying US $1.0917.


The big slide continues. ANZ's result didn't help - let's hope the other two banks reporting this week can give the market a leg-up. Or perhaps the RBA will surprise us with a rate cut this arvo? Nah... Still plenty of trading opportunities if you're willing to buy on pullback. I've locked in scalps in SSC, NMS and ZRL. Ahead in RRS, KCN and AMP. Less successful so far in FXJ and JMS.