daytrading feb 9 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Shares fell back this morning as an unexpected surge in Chinese inflation appeared to leak ahead of the official release time.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 38 points or 0.9% at 4251 with all sectors losing ground except energy +0.1%, consumer discretionary +0.2% and utilities, unchanged. The telecoms sector was the worst of the bunch, falling 2.1% after Telstra released half-year accounts.

The market clunked lower at around 11.40am EST after CNBC reported Reuters figures claiming to show consumer inflation in China had ticked up to 4.2%. The CNBC website said Reuters later withdrew the figures, which it said were from November. However, the official figures released at 12.30 pm showed a jump in consumer prices from an annual rate of inflation of 4.1% to 4.5%, thwarting hopes for imminent monetary easing in China.

Asian markets, already weak following underwhelming machinery orders in Japan, accelerated losses. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.68%, Shanghai 0.31% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.96%. Dow futures were recently down 48 points or 0.4%.

Crude oil futures eased 30 cents this morning to US$98.70 a barrel. Spot gold was $7.40 weaker at US$1,728.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0751.


China's stats people seem to leak like sieves. The market always seems to know what's coming before it happens. It's not happy with those inflation numbers, which seem to rule out any near-term stimulus in China. Back here, my aim for the day was to force myself to trade harder. I've been in cruise control all year and the results have not been pretty. Couldn't have picked a worse day to force trades, lol. Had an early win in AWC but I'm down in BXB and flat in CWN and OST. Watching a lot more.