Daytrading December 23 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market reached the halfway mark on track for a sixth straight rise after upbeat economic data boosted Wall Street overnight.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was trading 45 points or 0.9% ahead at 5161, within reach of its highest close since the first week of the month. The market has ground steadily higher this week, this morning extending its recovery from last Tuesday's two-year low beyond 250 points.

This morning's rally was led by the metals & mining sector +3.8%, materials +2.9%, gold +1.6% and energy +1.3%. Industrials -0.8% and health -0.4% bucked the trend. Wall Street locked in solid gains overnight after a report showed gross domestic product increased by 2% last quarter.

“Consumer spending looks like it’s helping the US economy,” James Lindsay, fund manager at Nikko Asset Management, told Bloomberg. “Volumes tend to get pretty light at this time of year. Markets have had a reasonable run and value is a lot harder to come by. The key things are still what happens with China, the flow-on effects into commodities and what the Fed does and how that affects sentiment and currencies.”

China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.26% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.02%. Trading on Japan's Nikkei was suspended for a public holiday. Dow futures were recently down 16 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures rallied 25 cents this morning to US$36.39 a barrel. Spot gold was 60 cents weaker at US$1,072.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.39 US cents.


And so this is Christmas. Well, close enough for me. I'll be wrapping it up for the year at the close of business today and take this opportunity to wish readers all the very best of the season. As always, it has been a year of changes. Endless and I reduced our workloads and found splendid replacements in Brit and SpeckledJim. Thanks and congratulations to both on the seamless transitions. A few old hands moved on and are much missed, while others took their place. It's the circle of (trading) life. Plenty of stalwarts remain, including Trees, Mitta, Ravgnome, 13nugget, Shants, Acca, Haspete and Strauss. We gained new blood, including some fine stock pickers. Thanks to all who followed the threads this year and rewarded the most useful contributions with a thumb now and then. It's appreciated. Merry Christmas. Trading: nice to sign off with a decent session. Wins this morning in PNV and QUB. Set my buy orders a pip or two too low in NOR and AZJ.

See you in 2016.