Afternoon trading Jan 16

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares dipped to a two-week low amid analyst downgrades for market behemoth BHP and selling of the big banks.

The ASX 200 touched 6042, its lowest point since the first session of the year, before paring its loss to 14 points or 0.2% at6063. An indifferently received production update from Rio Tinto and analyst downgrades for BHP from Investec and Morningstar helped lower the metals & mining sector by 0.4%. Today's declines followed a six-week surge in the big miners on an improving outlook for commodities.

The telecoms sector eased 1.4%, utilities 1% and financials 0.3%. Consumer stocks rallied 0.3-0.5% and IT 0.1%.

Today's falls came despite gains in Asia and positive US equity futures ahead of the resumption of trade tonight following yesterday's Martin Luther King Jr public holiday. S&P 500 futures were up five points or 0.18%. Dow futures looked frothy with a rise of 160 points or 0.62%. China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.18%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.39% and Japan's Nikkei 0.28%.

Crude oil futures were up 16 cents or 0.25% this morning to US$64.46 a barrel. Gold futures added $4.80 or 0.36% to US$1,339.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.56 US cents.


Positive signs for the overall market in the last hour. Some buying came in when the XJO neared the Jan 2 low. Index has certainly built a base at these levels. Ready for a push higher? Trading: couple of solid wins in CKA at 5c and DHR at 2.9c.