Afternoon trading April 20

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares pared early losses as key Asian markets shrugged off overnight weakness on Wall Street.

The ASX 200 reached the halfway mark with a deficit of seven points or 0.1% at 5874. Earlier the index declined 18 points before the big banks led a tentative turnaround. The financial sector, dogged this week by revelations at the Royal Commission into banking, advanced 0.1% to come within reach of its first gain in eight sessions. Also strong were consumer staples +0.3%, energy +0.3% and consumer discretionary +0.1%. The gold sector shed1.8%, telecoms 1% and metals & mining 0.4%.

Most Asian markets followed Wall Street lower. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.8% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.08%. Japan's Nikkei inched up 0.14%. Overnight, the S&P 500 lost 0.57% as investors fretted over rising interest rates. S&P 500 futures were recently up 1.25 points or 0.05%.

Crude oil futures pushed up six cents or 0.1% this morning to US$68.35 a barrel. Gold futures declined $4.20 or 0.31% to US$1,344.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.11 US cents.



Nice index reversal this morning. The XJO has been grinding higher for most of the month. Also a bit more excitement at the speculative end of the market this morning after a long lull. Promising signs? Trading: stuck to my routine, picking off lows in ESR, AEE and LCK.