Thanks QT and morning crew.Half-time round-up:A fifth straight...

Thanks QT and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A fifth straight win on Wall Street helped propel the local share market through the 5800 level for the first time in eight weeks. 

The ASX 200 peaked this morning at 5809 before paring its gain to a single point or less than 0.1% at 5796. Shares took their cues from Wall Street's best start to a year since 2006. Overnight, the S&P 500 rallied 0.45% to extend its gain for the year to 3.58%. Read more here.

A mixed market here saw gains in consumer staples +0.7%, utilities +0.7% and energy +0.4% offset by declines in gold stocks -1.9%, metals & mining -1.1% and financials -0.3%.

Asian markets ticked higher. China's Shanghai Composite added 0.38%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.3% andJapan's Nikkei 0.82%. S&P 500 futures were recently off two points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures faded 26 cents or 0.49% this morning to US$52.33 a barrel. Gold futures edged up $1 or 0.1%to US$1,288.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.91 US cents.

 

 

Can't let @Cleo leave without offering a few words. Usually when people disappear from these threads it's for negative reasons - they've done their dough or allowed their money to get tied up in bad trades. So it's great to see someone leave on their own terms. Been a rough couple of years for you, but you hung in there and retained your decency and sense of humour. You brought stability and reliability to the pre-market role. More importantly, you brought heart. There are times when it feels like a slog, but you never complained. You will be much missed. Please look in now and then to let us know what it's like out there in the real world. I hear they have cookies. Trading: some good wins on offer this morning for those holding pre-announcement - BKY, DSE, etc. E2E was a good un from the open - annoyed I didn't see the opp beforehand. I set a few buys pre-market for shares I hoped/expected might retrace, but they're happening slower than I'd like. Finally got a hit in RHT just below the round number.