Afternoon trading February 27

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A morning of well-received earnings updates helped Aussie shares rebound from their biggest tumble in eight weeks. 

The ASX 200 repaired some of the damage from yesterday's sharp sell-off with a bounce of 24 points or 0.4% to 6152. The market hit the skids yesterday, falling 0.9% as doubts emerged over whether the latest round of negotiations between China and the US will deliver a breakthrough in their long-running trade war. However, the mood on Wall Street improved overnight, the major indices ending with significantly smaller losses than pre-market futures had implied.

The domestic earnings season is winding down but provided many of the big moves this morning. Shares in job search company SEEK jumped 7.1% as traders took a long-term view of the company's decision to downgrade its near-term growth outlook in order to invest in fresh ventures.

Fruit and veg supplier Costa Group blamed subdued trading in the run-up to Christmas for a $70 million slump in half-year profit to a mere $4.3 million. However, the problems had been flagged well in advance and traders responded by marking the shares up 4.6%. 

Copper and gold miner Oz Minerals inched to its highest level since 2012 after beating analysts' expectations. Shares rose more than 1% before fading after the company announced a 15c dividend that was larger than predicted on revenue of $1 billion and a post-tax profit of $233 million. 

'Buy now, pay later' companies have delivered some of the best returns in recent months, with Afterpay the standout. Rival Flexigroup surged 18% this morning as investors applauded the arrival of investment banker John Wylie as a 5% stakeholder and Board member, and welcomed the company's decision to restructure its product range to take on Afterpay. Investors in Afterpay appeared only mildly concerned, marking the company's shares down 3.6%.

US equity futures were fairly steady, S&P 500 futures recently down 1.75 points or less than 0.1%. 

Asian markets recorded solid gains. China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.57%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.44% andJapan's Nikkei 0.5%.

Crude oil recovered some of its losses triggered by a demand by US President Donald Trump that OPEC do something about the rising price at the pump. West Texas Intermediate futures were lately ahead 52 cents or 0.94% at $US56.04 a barrel. Gold futures improved $2.70 or 0.2% to $US1,331.20 an ounce. The dollar was flat at 71.82 US cents.

 
Looking ahead what is likely to move the market over the next 24 hours, mining giant Rio Tinto is due to report its annual result at 5pm tonight Australian Eastern Standard Time. US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet today and tomorrow with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has another day of testimony before Congress tonight. And back home there are earnings reports due tomorrow from Ramsay Health Care, Ingham's and Adelaide Brighton, among others.

 

Trading: too slow on the trigger this morning. Stood like a bemused kid watching heavy traffic fly by. There were a few bounce opps for the quick, but alas I was not among them until ATS showed signs of bottoming.