Shares tilted higher this morning as a bumper profit from CBA offset soft Chinese inflation data and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The ASX 200 rallied 27 points or 0.5% to 5771, reversing most of yesterday's fall after the annual profit from the Australia's largest company by market capitalisation topped expectations. Shares in CBA rose 0.6%, helping lift the financial sector by 0.7%, as the annual profit increased 4.6% to $9.88 billion.
"Overall, it was quite a good result with very few issues. The modest beat to expectations was driven by continued low bad debts," Regal Funds Management portfolio manager Omkar Joshi told Fairfax.
Also strong this morning: gold stocks +1.7%, IT +1.3% and metals & mining +0.8%. Energy stocks lost 0.8% and consumer discretionary 0.3%.
US equity futures remained negative after President Trump threatened to bring "fire and fury" to North Korea if it continued to threaten the US. Dow futures were recently off 34 points or 0.15%. S&P 500 futures declined 7.5 points or 0.3%.
China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.42% after a report showed consumer prices increased by 1.4% last quarter, down from 1.5% the previous quarter and below expectations. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.45% and Japan's Nikkei 1.28%.
Crude oil futures eased 15 cents or 0.31% this morning to US$49.02 a barrel. Gold futures improved $8 or 0.63% to US$1,270.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 78.74 US cents.
Great to have some volume to work with this morning. ZIP and RAP offered great liquidity - the trading equivalent of a safety net. Took both for a spin. Also dipped a toe in 4CE when the gap closed. Also HAS and a part-fill in VRC. Damn, it's good to be busy again. Will be interesting to see if our market continues to ignore those nasty-looking US futures.
