Afternoon trading August 15

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A global relief rally backed by strong US equity futures helped Australian shares rise for a second session.

The ASX 200 advanced 40 points or 0.7% to 5770 at the halfway stage as traders picked up IT stocks +1.3%, health +1.1%, industrials +1% and financials +0.8%. The gains offset weakness in the energy sector -1%, gold -0.4% and metals & mining -0.2%.

US futures firmed this morning amid renewed conviction that last week's North Korean stand-off was abating. Dow futures were recently ahead 75 points or 0.34%. S&P 500 futures were up 7.75 points or 0.31%.

"The selling [last week] never did cascade. We had an adjustment and this week investors were able to sit back and say the Korean situation is something to watch, but it's probably had its effect on the market already," Bucky Hellwig, senior vice-president at BB&T Wealth Management in the US told Fairfax. "There's still cash on the sidelines looking for an opportunity to buy the dip. They're in there with both hands today."


China's Shanghai Composite tacked on 0.65%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.44% and Japan's Nikkei 1.28%.

Crude oil futures rebounded five cents or 0.11 this morning to US$47.64 a barrel. Gold futures sagged $9.80 or 0.76% to US$1,280.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 78.73 US cents.


The index has been regular as clockwork lately, which means today was always going to be an advance and tomorrow should be a short-term top/reversal day. Of course, trends eventually change, but it's hard to see what's going to shake the XJO out of its current groove. Trading: dabbles in BUX and NOR. Former coming good.