Afternoon trading Feb 19

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares extended last week's gains as the domestic earnings season garnered attention while much of Asia closed for public holidays.

The ASX 200 rallied 27 points or 0.5% to 5931, positioning the benchmark index for its highest close in almost two weeks as markets continue to recover from a global correction at the start of the month. Leading today's advanced were utilities +2%, health +1.2% and industrials +1.1%. A rise of 0.5% in financials helped offset a 0.4% decline in metals & mining.

The earnings season entered one of its heaviest weeks following a run of solid, if unspectacular, reports.

"The meat of earnings season upon us," IG Markets' Chris Weston told Fairfax. "As things stand, 42 per cent of companies have already reported earnings, with 53 per cent having beaten on earnings line and 63 per cent on the sales line. Aggregate earnings growth sits at 15 per cent, but this is likely to gravitate lower through the week, although expectations for full-year earnings are actually firming. So a reasonable earnings season so far, but it's hardly going to shoot the lights out and really that's what we need if we are going to reclaim the 6000 level."


Lunar New Year holidays closed most Asian markets. Japan's Nikkei improved 1.18%. S&P 500 futures were recently ahead 8.5 points or 0.31%.

Crude oil futures jumped 65 cents or 1.05% this morning to US$62.33 a barrel. Gold futures dropped $3.20 or 0.24% to US$1,353 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.33 US cents.



Positive signs from international markets for risk appetite tonight: big surge in crude; US futures looking promising; defensive gold down. Suggests last week's Wall Street recovery could/should continue tonight. Trading: joined the charging herd on GSW but like several here, exited way before the end of the upswing. A good trade but should have been a stunner. Also took PAB at 2c - a high-probability set-up for a bounce of at least one pip.