Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: Australian...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares surrendered early gains despite a strong rebound on Wall Street overnight and solid domestic jobs data.

The ASX 200 reached the halfway mark steady at 6017 after earlier being up as much as 19 points. Gains in financials +0.4%, telecoms +0.3% and IT +0.2% were offset by declines in gold stocks -1.4%, energy -1.4% and metals and mining -0.3%.

The index briefly resumed its uptrend following mid-morning news that the economy added 34,700 jobs last month. A rise in participation drove the jobless rate up a pip to 5.5%. The dollar eased a fraction to 79.49 US cents.

"The 34,700 rise in employment in December (consensus: 15,000) rounds off an exceptional year for the labour market," Paul Dales from Capital Economics told Fairfax. "In fact, 2017 was the first calendar year since monthly data were published in 1978 that employment rose in every month."


The mood in Asia was brighter ahead of tonight's Chinese economic update (6pm AEST) after US shares bounced roughly 1% overnight. China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both added 0.67% and Japan's Nikkei 0.45%. Dow futures were recently up 27 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures gained 18 cents or 0.28% this morning to US$64.15 a barrel. Gold futures dived $14.20 or 1.06% to US$1,324.80 an ounce.


ASX once again sank like a burst souffle. Hasn't been able to hold its intraday gains this last week and a half. Any theories? This is the softest run since this latest upleg of the bull rally got underway in October. Trading: added a few new names to the watchlist but failed to board any fast-moving trains.