Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: The share...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market extended yesterday's gains as US futures recovered from a late fade on Wall Street overnight.

The ASX 200 rallied 46 points or 0.8% to 5855, its highest level in more than two weeks. Leading the gains were materials +1.7%, telecoms +1.4% and financials +1%.

The index improved steadily throughout the morning on signs Wall Street had overcome shock news of an FBI raid on President Trump's lawyer's offices overnight. The breaking story triggered a sharp selldown in US stocks in the final hour of trade. The S&P 500, which had been up as much as 1.9% for the session, closed just 0.33% ahead. However, S&P 500 futures had lately rebounded 33.5 points or 1.28%.

Also helping sentiment this morning was a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping this morning pledging to open Chinese markets and ease trade tensions with the US.

"Expectations are reasonably high that China's president will reaffirm Beijing's ongoing commitment to reform and more open markets (while not being seen to overtly acquiesce to Washington's demands)," ANZ analysts in a note quoted on CNBC.

The Shanghai Composite was lately up 0.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.03% and Japan's Nikkei 1.08%.

Crude oil futures advanced 42 cents or 0.66% this morning to US$63.84 a barrel. Gold futures declined $2.80 or 0.21% to US$1,337.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.33 US cents.



I kept well away from the stock threads this morning and consequently feel much more optimistic about the future of the planet. Wall Street was in rally mode overnight until news of the FBI raid broke, however, today's futures suggest the market should regain tonight most of what it lost - barring any more news shocks. China's president helped things along. Trading: been hard going these last few sessions. Got something out of PDZ from yesterday, but failed to record any other wins. In and out of NAG for brokerage. Watching a few more.