Afternoon trading December 21

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market's losing run extended to a fourth session and a fresh two-year low as Wall Street struggled to digest slowing growth and rising interest rates.

The ASX 200 briefly threatened to rally before rolling over to a mid-session loss of 67 points or 1.2% at 5439. The benchmark index peaked for the year in late August at 6358 and has since lost more than 900 points in a series of jarring downlegs. Today's low marked the weakest read since December 2016.

Today's decline followed another night of solid losses on Wall Street as traders continued to factor in continued rate rises next year even as indicators suggest a slowdown in global growth. The S&P 500 lost 1.58%. S&P 500 futures were recently down 7.75 points or 0.31%.

"The crux of the global equity selloff is twofold and applies equally to the local share market," Kyle Rodda of IG Markets told Fairfax. "On the one side, traders are collectively communicating (rightly or wrongly) that global growth is going to slow down considerably; on the other side, policy makers (that is: the US Federal Reserve) have signalled they will continue tightening global financial conditions."

Gold stocks were once again the safest haven, rising 3.1%. The metals & mining sector gained 1.2% and materials 0.7%. At the other end, telecoms shed 2.2%, consumer discretionary 1.2% and financials 0.8%.

Asian markets. China's Shanghai Composite %, Hong Kong's Hang Seng % andJapan's Nikkei %.

Crude oil futures bounced 81 cents or 1.77% this morning to US$46.68 a barrel. Gold futures slid $3.60 or 0.28%to US$1,264.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.13 US cents.

 

 

This will be my last afternoon update for a week. Heading to the beach over Xmas, back here a week on Monday. Someone can take this slot meantime if they're keen, but in previous years we've found with the reduced holiday traffic and shortened sessions that it worked fine to let the morning thread run through to the end. Let the people decide. Merry Christmas to all when it comes. May the day itself deliver more than this year's Santa Rally. Phfft! Trading: busy morning, but gnarly. Plenty of trades but mostly small potatoes. Bounces in CAT and PAR. In and out of AVQ for brokerage - should have been more patient. Speculator in NNW.