Afternoon trading Dec 7

Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Below is a rush job - been out all morning at the local school presentation day. Dave Brubeck will be spinning in his grave if he heard what the school band did to 'Take Five'. Never thought of it as a funeral march.


Half-time round-up:

Shares reversed almost three days of losses this morning despite flat leads and weak export data.

The ASX 200 rebounded 37 points or 0.6% to 5983, regaining almost all of this week's decline, which followed three negative sessions in the US and a downturn in commodity prices. This morning's broad recovery saw gains across all sectors, led by utilities +1.3%, IT +1.2% and financials +0.8%.

The market held its gains after news that the trade surplus tightened in October due to weaker Chinese demand for iron ore and coal. Exports fell 3%. Imports rose 2%.

"The slump in the international trade surplus, to $0.1bn in October from $1.6bn in September (consensus $1.4bn) is due to the reduction in demand for iron ore and coal exports linked to the pollution crackdown in China and a rise in the cost of imported oil," Paul Dales at Capital Economics told Fairfax. "Australia has still managed to notch up 12 consecutive months of a trade surplus for the first time since 2011, but only just."


A mixed morning in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite down 0.26%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.58% and Japan's Nikkei up 1.23%. Dow futures were recently up 58 points or 0.24%.

Crude oil futures bounced 22 cents or 0.39% this morning to US$56.18 a barrel. Gold futures dipped 30 cents or 0.02% to US$1,265.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.51 US cents.


Promising rise on US equity futures this morning - ran out of time to explore the reasons. Trading: missed most of the action. Took a small possy in EUR for any post-CR push this arvo.