Daytrading September 2 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares this morning sagged towards last week's two-year closing low after GDP data showed the economy slowed to a tortoise's pace last quarter.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was trading 78 points or 1.5% lower at 5019 after earlier falling to within 14 points of last Monday's close at 5001, the index's weakest finish since July 2013. All sectors declined during a third straight losing session, led by falls in energy -3.6%, utilities -2.9% and metals & mining -2.2%.

The market extended its fall after the 11.30am EST release of gross domestic product figures showed the economy grew at an anemic 0.2% during the three months to June, down from 0.9% in the first calendar-quarter and short of the 0.4% growth that economists expected. Read more here.

"Looks like 0.2% GDP growth for Q2 for Australia is one of the weakest in the world right now," economist Stephen Koukoulas told Fairfax. "Even Greece grew faster!"

The data pushed the dollar briefly below 70 US cents for the first time in six years. The Aussie was lately buying 70.15 US cents after falling as low as 69.78 US cents.

China's Shanghai Composite tumbled more than 4.5% in early trade before lately paring its fall to 3.07%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was off 1.55% and Japan's Nikkei ahead 0.8%. Dow futures were recently up 102 points or 0.6%.

Crude oil futures bounced 16 cents this morning to US$44.33 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.70 weaker at US$1,138.10 an ounce.


Tough morning, but the index is keeping a respectful distance from the lows. Upbeat US futures are helping there - can't see any particular reason for the rise on the newswires, so it may be games or a genuine change of mood. Too early to read too much into it. Trading: certainly the best morning of my week, but that's not a huge claim relative to last week's bounty. The decline in SEN offered a very nice entry. GNC also recovered well. Pips from PAN and SWM.