daytrades sep 24 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Shares skidded to a nine-day low this morning but pared losses as the dollar pushed back through 95 U.S. cents.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 24 points or 0.5% at 4609 as a broad sell-off dragged all sectors lower. Hardest hit were gold -1.6%, telecoms -1% and utilities -0.9%. The Aussie dollar, a useful barometer of risk appetite, slipped under 95 U.S. cents briefly this morning, but was recently trading at 95.09 cents.

"The real concern in the market today is the weakness in the Aussie dollar," MF Global trader Anthony Anderson told MarketWatch. "The selling has been quite widespread as people take some money off the table before the weekend."

In economic news, the Federal budget deficit for last financial year revealed this morning was smaller than expected. The $54.8 billion deficit (4.2% of GDP) was $2.3 billion less than estimated in the May budget. Treasurer Wayne Swan said the budget would return to surplus in 2012/13.

Asian markets played catch-up after returning from yesterday's public holiday. Japan's Nikkei slipped 1.22% but Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.15%. Shanghai was closed for a third day for holidays. Dow futures were recently at +16.

Crude oil futures gave back 8 cents this morning at $74.87 a barrel. The spot gold price continued to go sideways, trading recently 50 cents stronger at $1,293 an ounce.


I was too bearish with my opening bids this morning and didn't get into as many trades as hoped. AMC was a gift at 6.42 and has bounced off support beautifully. OBL looked like a gift but in the end I was grateful for 2 points. MGX from Wednesday may be putting in a reversal candle but tailed off badly yesterday after a similar start. Well done to GDA traders this morning.