daytrades may 9 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

A rebound in key commodities and most regional markets this morning helped Australian shares start the week nearly 1% stronger.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 40 points or 0.9% at 4783 as a broad rally lifted all sectors except the defensive telecom sector. IT, mining and financial shares recorded the morning's biggest advances.

The metals & mining sector rallied 1.2% as a drop in the US dollar helped oil, gold and silver edge higher following last week's commodity rout. The US dollar index was lately off 0.33% as Friday's panic over Greek debt faded. The Aussie dollar rallied more than a third of a cent to US $1.0758.

Light sweet crude for July delivery was recently 53 cents stronger at US $98.59 a barrel. Spot gold improved $3.80 to US $1,498.20. Spot silver was 52 cents stronger at US $36.14 an ounce.

Asian markets were mixed, with Japan's Nikkei dipping 0.21%, but Shanghai up 0.67% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallying 0.88%, its first advance in nine sessions. Dow futures were recently at a bullish +61.

Business conditions and confidence deteriorated last month as a surging dollar hurt exporters and the odds on interest rate rises improved. NAB's Business Survey recorded a fall of four index points +5 for business conditions and a drop of two points in business confidence to +7.

"Business conditions slipped back in April, unwinding some of the strong surge in March," according to a NAB statement quoted on Fairfax. "This was driven by a sharp fall in trading conditions and a drop in profitability, although employment edged higher."

A separate survey showed job ads increased for a 12th straight month, underlining the strength of employment growth. The total number of adverts on the internet and in newspapers rose by 1% last month from March.


A bullish morning, with Friday's surge in the US dollar unwinding, and commodities and US futures showing evidence of rotation/expected reallocation of funds tonight. My silver ETF purchase from Friday is moving in the right direction - hoping for a good bounce this week. Otherwise I was too passive this morning, waiting for trade invitations that never arrived. Snapped up a few ROG when it hit the placement price, but that was it.