Afternoon trading August 17

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market pushed through 5800 for the first time in six weeks before paring gains as Telstra slumped to a five-year low.

The ASX 200 rallied as high as 5806 and was lately ahead eight points or 0.1% at 5793 following a strong overnight session for metals. The gold sector led the advance with a rise of 3.1%, followed by metals & mining +1.8% and health +1.7%. The telecoms sector plunged 7.2% as Telstra tumbled 8.1% to its weakest point since 2012 after slashing its dividend and announcing full-year profits declined by more than a third.

The market peaked before the release of date showing employment improved more than twice as much as analysts expected last month. The economy added 27,900 positions, keeping the jobless rate steady at 5.6%. The economy has added jobs for ten months for the first time since 2010.

China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.24%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.01% and Japan's Nikkei shed 0.08%. Dow futures were recently off 21 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures bounced 11 cents or 0.24% this morning to US$46.89 a barrel. Gold futures surged $10.30 or 0.8% to US$1,293.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.28 US cents.


Decision time for the index: topping out around 5800 once again, in line with the recent trend, or is this breakout time after months of consolidation? Last night's strong session on metals markets supports the case for the latter. If not for the TLS prang we would be trading much higher this morning. Trading: last week was one of my best this year, but I haven't got out of second gear this week. Looked at plenty but no fills yet.