Afternoon trading August 6

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market reversed two days of losses as US equity futures shrugged off China's latest threat to impose trade tariffs.

The ASX 200 jumped 38 points or 0.6% to 6273 as traders picked up metals & mining stocks +1.5%, materials +1.2%, gold +1.1% and financials +0.8%. The only sectors to miss the upswing were IT -0.6% and consumer discretionary -0.2%. Trade volumes were hampered by a NSW bank holiday.

US equities rallied this morning despite China's announcement late on Friday that it will impose tariffs on US$60 billion of US imports if the White House proceeds with tariffs on Chinese imports. S&P 500 futures were recently up 4.75 points or 0.17%. On Friday, the S&P 5oo tacked on 0.46%. This morning China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.23%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.26% and Japan's Nikkei 0.45%.

Crude oil futures rose 32 cents or 0.47% this morning to US$68.81 a barrel. Gold futures improved $1.40 or 0.11% to US$1,224.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.95 US cents.



Trading: took a couple of swings at FXL but have to be patient. Keen students of this section will know I like a good management change share crash. Looks overdone to me, but ultimately the market decides. Profit guidance confirmed in the same announcement, so it's possible the market had factored in something better. Still time to come good.