Afternoon trading Feb 20

Thanks Endless and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market gave back around half of yesterday's gains ahead of the resumption of US trade tonight following the Presidents Day public holiday.

The ASX 200 retreated 22 points or 0.4% to 5919 during a low-key morning as many Asian markets remained closed for Lunar New Year holidays. The metals & mining sector led the way south, falling 1.2%. Also weak were gold stocks -0.9%, telecoms -0.4% and financials -0.5%. IT stocks gained 1.3%, utilities 0.5% and the Small Ords 0.2%.

The tone for the day was set by mild declines in Europe overnight, dragging US futures into the red. The UK's FTSE lost 0.64% and Germany's DAX 0.53%. This morning, Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.16% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.31%. S&P 500 futures were recently off eight points or 0.29%.

Crude oil futures added to yesterday's electronic gains, lately up 66 cents or 1.07% at US$62.34 a barrel. Gold futures were down $11.90 or 0.88% at US$1,344.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 78.97 US cents.



A predictably lacklustre session at the big end of the market, with the international money-go-round temporarily slowed by holidays on both sides of the Pacific. Hopefully things will pick up tomorrow. Still a few flickers of life at the spec end. JAT the big winner, AUZ problematic for any who bought this morning. Still time, of course. No joy for me yet. Took PGM and SPQ on pullback. Waiting.