Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
Shares reversed early falls after shrugging off headwinds including worries about global growth and a hitch in US-China trade talks.
The ASX 200 reached mid-session three points or almost 0.1% ahead at 5862 after earlier falling as much as 27 points. The decline followed a sharp retreat on Wall Street overnight following reports that the US cancelled a trade meeting with China this week because of outstanding concerns over intellectual property rights. Read more here.
Also weighing on Wall Street was a downgraded global economic outlook from the International Monetary Fund and Monday's weak Chinese growth data. The S&P 500 slumped 1.42%.“There seems to be a plethora of negative news regarding the global economy and China and the [US] corporate profits that were reported today couldn’t offset that,” Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in the US, told Reuters. “A lot of companies are coming out with earnings this week, so it’s going to be a battle between earnings and the perception of what’s going on China and the global market.”
Here, key defensive assets found buyers for a second day. Health stocks gained 1.2%, utilities 0.8% and consumer staples 0.6%. Resource stocks lost ground, including energy -1.5% and materials -0.5%. The financials sector eased 0.2%.
Asian markets traded mixed. China's Shanghai Composite added 0.15% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.13%. Japan's Nikkei declined 0.27%. S&P 500 futures were recently up 8.5 points or 0.32%.
Crude oil futures edged up eight cents or 0.19% this morning to US$53.09 a barrel. Gold futures rallied $1.30 or 0.1%to US$1,284.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.38 US cents.
The spec market is finally starting to warm up. EN1 for a coupe of sessions, now FEX. Promising signs. Trading: pip-traded PUR under the round number. Small dabbles in JRV and ATU.
