Afternoon trading Aug 24

Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Let's stick to trading this afternoon, please folks.


Half-time round-up:

Shares hovered near break-even for the week as a down night on Wall Street and a looming central bank talkfest dampened buyer interest.

The ASX 200 edged up 12 points or 0.2% to 5749, recouping most of yesterday's losses and inching into positive territory for the week at the halfway mark of the session as investors welcomed earnings updates from FLT, CGC, PPT, NEC, EHE and S32. The metals & mining sector provided much of the uplift, rising 1.6%, followed by materials +1.3%, gold +1.1% and IT +0.5%.

Overnight, US stocks lost ground as President Trump threatened to "close down" government if it fails to support his plans to build a wall between the US and Mexico, and as traders pared risk ahead of the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium starting tonight.

"The top event risk moving forward is the three day 'symposium' hosted by the Federal Reserve's Kansas City branch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from August 24 to 26," IG analyst John Kicklighter told Fairfax. "This event carries market moving potential even in the most mundane of conditions – and our environment is far from that."

China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.14%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.48% and Japan's Nikkei shed 0.13%. Dow futures were recently off five points or 0.02%.

Crude oil futures faded six cents or 0.12% this morning to US$48.35 a barrel. Gold futures drifted $1.30 or 0.1% lower to US$1,293.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.04 US cents.


Trading: still sobbing about missing that BUB rebound. Had my finger on the button at 60c, then 61c, then 62c.... Shakes head. These parabolic runs all seem to be coming to ugly conclusions, but the volatility is offering great trades. I took a small position in AVQ this morning on the expectation we'll see some sort of rebound in the next session or two. THC was my other buy - no joy there yet.