Daytrading May 16 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A rebound in crude oil helped the ASX overcome soft weekend economic data out of China and push towards its first rise in three sessions.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 38 points or 0.7% ahead at 5367 with health care +2.6%, gold +1% and consumer staples +0.8% leading the rally. The energy sector brought up the rear with a skinny gain of 0.1% despite a rally of 73 cents or 1.6% in West Texas crude this morning to US$46.94 a barrel.

The market eased roughly ten points at the open following weekend news that April industrial production, retail sales and investment data missed targets in China.

"While monthly data is volatile, particularly for credit growth, the overall trend suggests that China's growth rate is holding the line at best," CMC chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Fairfax. "A weekend statement by China's central bank noted that monetary policy will continue to support the economy. However, markets are now assuming that authorities will continue to attempt a balancing line between stimulus attempting to gradually wind back excess credit and industrial capacity."

The Shanghai Composite shook early losses to advance 0.11%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.19% and Japan's Nikkei 1.04%. Dow futures were recently ahead 21 points or 0.12%.

Gold futures rallied $6.50 or 0.5% to US$1,279.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.86 US cents.


Thought the Chinese data might throw a wet blanket over the market today, but tally-ho, up we go. Trading: scratchy morning. Intraday rebound set-ups looked promising, but pay-offs have been slow. Scraped something out of DKO. Ahead in PNV and KAI, but they're proving stubborn. Subsistence stuff so far.