daytrading jan 16 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Regional markets retreated this morning as a breakdown in Greece's debt talks and European credit downgrades sapped risk appetite.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 45 points or 1.1% at 4150 with all sectors except telecoms losing ground. Resource stocks and financials, the twin pillars of the Australian stock market, were off 1.5% and 1.3% respectively.

Asian markets fell back ahead of tonight's auction of French bonds after Standard & Poor's cut the ratings on nine euro-zone countries and talks over Greece's debt burden broke up without a resolution. Japan's Nikkei lost 1.62% this morning, Shanghai 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.73%. Dow futures were recently down 58 points or nearly 0.5% ahead of tonight's public holiday.

"The negative outlooks for virtually every euro-zone country suggest that the debt crisis will remain an issue for the markets for much of this year," Brown Brothers Harriman strategist Win Thin told MarketWatch. "While the S&P cuts were to be expected, we do not think markets are prepared for a disorderly default by Greece. Markets may have been wrong in recent weeks to look past Greece to Italy and Spain, when the Greek situation has yet to be resolved."

There was mixed news for the domestic recovery, with job ads declining, inflation rising and home loans exceeding predictions. Employment adverts decreased 0.9% last month, according to the ANZ's monthly survey, and inflation increased by 0.5%. The number of home loans issued in November accelerated by 1.4%.

Crude oil futures dropped 34 cents this morning to US$98.69 a barrel. Spot gold was $4 softer at US$1,635.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0266.


No real surprises this morning, with falls across regional markets about what should have been expected. However, trading long is never easy when the XJO trend is down all morning. I managed rebound scalps in TOL and STB but neither produced much to brag about. Just got some FWD. Missed a few more opps - concentration poor after a boozy weekend. If this was footy training I'd send myself home to sort myself out.