Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: Shares...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares slumped to a two-week low before staging a partial recovery as retail sales exceeded expectations and traders awaited this afternoon's Reserve Bank rate announcement.

The ASX 200 fell 37 points in the first half hour before clawing most of it back to reach the mid-point just four points or less than 0.1% in the red at 5982. Telecoms was the pick of the sectors, up 2.5%. Also ahead were utilities +1%, energy +0.5% and consumer discretionary +0.3%. Financials was a major drag, off 0.4% after earlier touching a two-month low.

The dollar pushed well above the 76 US cents mark on news that retail sales gathered pace in October. Sales improved 0.5%, compared to expectations for growth of 0.3%. The dollar was lately buying 76.44 US cents.

"The improvement was fairly broad-based too, with growth accelerating in the majority of sectors and states," Capital Economics economist Kate Hickie told Fairfax. "This provides a small bit of comfort to retailers following a run of weak data and news today that Amazon has finally launched in Australia."

The Reserve Bank met this morning and releases its revised rate outlook at 2.30pm EST, plus any change to the cash rate.


China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.09% and Japan's Nikkei lost 0.56%. Dow futures were recently up 37 points or 0.15%.

Crude oil futures gained 14 cents or 0.24% this morning to US$57.61 a barrel. Gold futures put on 80 cents or 0.06% to US$1,278.50 an ounce.


Trading: some big surf at the red end of the spec sector. EVE and QBL offered short-term entry opps for those willing to hazard the heavy swell. I caught EVE on the rebound once and QBL four times (final score: three wins, twice out for brokerage). Also trades in SCU, LPD and RMX. Busy morning - the way we like it.