A strong rebound on Wall Street overnight fuelled gains across the Asia-Pacific and helped push the ASX 200 back through 5800.
The benchmark index rose 49 points or 0.9% to 5805 at the halfway point as traders snapped up metals & mining shares +2.1%, IT +1.9% and financials +1.5%. The rally would have been stronger still if not for a raft of property trusts trading without their dividends.
The S&P 500 bounced 0.88% overnight and the Nasdaq 1.43% after the European Central Bank backtracked on hints earlier this week that it was preparing to wind down support for the market.
"Recognising the shudder in the capital and fixed income markets Tuesday following the mere hint that one of the most dovish central banks in the world – the ECB – was open to the eventual policy shift, the central bank scrambled to correct course." IG analyst John Kicklighter told Fairfax. "A 'source close to [ECB President Mario] Draghi' relayed that the he didn't mean to signal hawkish intentions, and the markets settled, with volatility measures dropping back to recent lows and equity indexes clawing back lost ground."
China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.76% and Japan's Nikkei 0.54%. Dow futures were recently up a bullish 34 points or 0.16%.
Crude oil futures improved another 20 cents or 0.45% this morning to US$44.94 a barrel. Gold futures gained $2.40 or 0.19% to US$1,251.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.61 US cents.
Trading: well, I got my wish with GMC, but probably too late for a simple intraday pip trade. Now more likely to take a few sessions to come good. Caught the low in NEU, but again a part-fill that means a seven-pip bounce doesn't add up to much. Think I feel a nap coming on.
