daytrading aug 24 afternoon

Thanks Endless. Half-time round-up:

An early rally in Australian shares faded this morning as a debt downgrade for Japan and disappointing corporate earnings dragged on Asian markets and US futures.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 8 points or 0.2% at 4165 after earlier rallying as much as 65 points following a strong overnight performance by Wall Street. The market's gains ebbed away as Asian markets turned south, taking US futures with them.

Gold shares were the main drag on the ASX, falling 1.5%, ahead of energy -0.8% and materials -0.8%. Telecoms +1% was the pick of the sectors.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.07% this morning after market heavyweight China Life Insurance missed earnings targets. Shanghai eased 0.14%. The Nikkei lost 0.19% during the morning session after Moody's downgraded Japan to Aa3 from Aa2 with a stable outlook. The ratings agency blamed rising government debt and the nation's budget deficit for the downgrade.

US futures deteriorated as the morning wore on. Dow futures were recently off 76 points or 0.68%.

Domestic economic news added to concerns about a slowdown in the economy, in line with global trends. Business failures jumped 25% last quarter and construction work increased less than expected. Nearly 3,000 business went under in the June quarter, the most in 12 months. Construction work increased by 0.7% during the quarter, less than the 1% rise tipped by economists.

Gold pared overnight losses. Spot gold has rallied $21.30 since 7.15 am this morning to US$1,852 an ounce. Crude oil futures eased 28 cents to US$85.52 a barrel. The dollar was buying US$1.048.


A disappointing morning all round, with the two big Asian markets responding to domestic issues and US futures breaking down. Never easy to make money in a sliding market unless you're short. I scraped a couple of scalps out of minor bounces in SEK and JHX but neither amounted to much. Had various buy orders waiting in case the selling in the goldies got silly, but none were hit. Hope others fared better.