Afternoon trading August 17

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Wall Street's best session since April helped push Australian shares to a new ten-year peak.

The ASX 200 rallied ten points or 0.15% to 6338, grinding through stiff overhead resistance to its highest level since January 2008. Tech stocks led the advance, rising 1.3%, supported by telecoms +1%, utilities +0.8% and financials +0.4%. Resource stocks remain under pressure from a strengthening greenback, sending gold stocks down 1.8%, metals % mining 0.5% and energy 0.4%.

News of a revival of US-China trade talks set the mood for a 1.58% surge on the Dow Jones Industrial Average overnight, the blue-chip index's best single-day return since April. The broader S&P 500 added 0.79%. S&P 500 futures were recently ahead one point or 0.04%.
"The increased investor optimism came following news that US and Chinese officials are in talks to renew trade negotiations," Kyle Rodda of IG Markets told Fairfax. "The favourable developments managed to distract from the uncertainty surrounding the Turkey crisis, that at this time continues unabated... US markets bounced off the canvas in response to the sliver of good news."

The improved mood saw China's Shanghai Composite gain 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.44% and Japan's Nikkei 0.53%.

Crude oil futures dipped three cents or 0.05% this morning to US$65.43 a barrel. Gold futures faded 30 cents or 0.03% to US$1,183.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.66 US cents.


Trading: not a sniff. Fridays have turned into a desert for trades lately. May have to consider a three-day weekend. Hmmm... Any cons?