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

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A triple whammy of soft GDP data, weaker commodity prices and losses on Wall Street overnight helped push the ASX to a two-week low.

The ASX 200 reached the halfway mark 14 points or 0.2% lower at 5957 and on track for a third straight loss this week. Resource stocks were the main culprit after copper dived 4.2% overnight, its largest loss in two years, iron ore 1.3% and gold closed at a four-month low. The metals & mining sector lost 1.6%, materials 1.2% and gold 0.9%. Bucking the downtrend were consumer staples +0.4%, consumer discretionary +0.3% and financials +0.3%.

The dollar fell roughly a third of a cent after quarterly GDP figures missed expectations. The third-quarter print came in at 0.6%, versus expectations for a reading of 0.7%. The annual figure of 2.8% was also below expectations, with economists anticipating 3%. The dollar was lately buying 75.87 US cents.

Overnight, the S&P 500 in the US fell for a third session for the first time since August, losing 0.37%. S&P 500 futures were recently up two points or 0.08%. China's Shanghai Composite gave up 0.4%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.04% and Japan's Nikkei 0.63%.

Crude oil futures slid 25 cents or 0.43% this morning to US$57.37 a barrel. Gold futures bounced $2.90 or 0.23% to US$1,267.80 an ounce.


Been some walloping retraces over the last few sessions. Certainly not a spec market that rewards complacency. Take your profits where you can get them and don't turn off your phone alerts.  Normally I get interested if a share is off 10%; this week 15%+ is a better benchmark for bounce candidates. Trading: looking a lot like a losing session for me - first in several weeks. Bought RIR in haste before analysing what a lousy deal they had secured. Novice error. It's now just a matter of how big a sandwich I have to swallow. Made money elsewhere on FFG, QUR, ARU and OOK, but likely not enough.