Afternoon trading March 16

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares pared a losing week as Wesfarmers' decision to spin off Coles helped offset a fourth day off losses for the big banks.

The ASX 200 reached the halfway mark ahead 15 points or 0.3% at 5936 after earlier being up as much as 29 points. The consumer staples sector jumped 3.2% as WES surged 6.7% on plans to demerge its Coles division. Also strong: telecoms +1.1%, industrials +0.8% and metals and mining +0.8%.. The financial sector lost 0.6% as the Royal Commission ended its first week.

US stocks closed mixed overnight following reports that the White House intends to target China with a range of tariffs.  The S&P 5oo lost 0.08%, while the Dow gained 0.47%. S&P 500 futures were recently down 3.5 points or 0.13%. China's Shanghai Composite %, Hong Kong's Hang Seng % and Japan's Nikkei %.

Crude oil futures dipped one cent or 0.01% this morning to US$61.18 a barrel. Gold futures gave up $3.10 or 0.24% to US$1,314.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.84 US cents.



Trading: win in SAS, jury still out on AEE. Stubborn selling.