Afternoon trading January 30

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The ASX slashed early gains as the threat of a banking crackdown following the Royal Commission weighed on financial stocks.

The ASX 200 cut an opening rally of 38 points to just five points or 0.1% at 5879 mid-session after the heavyweight financial sector fell 0.6% to a three-week low. The government announced yesterday that the Royal Commission into finance will hand down its recommendations after the stock market closes next Monday.

"Until the uncertainty is removed, we will probably see a bit of movement back and forward," Atlas Funds Management chief investment officer Hugh Dive told Fairfax.

The market caught an early uplift from a well-received quarterly earnings update from US heavyweight Apple, released after the end of regular trade on Wall Street this morning. Shares in Apple were lately up 5.7% in after-hours action. S&P 500 futures lately reversed an opening rally, falling 0.5 points or 0.02%. Nasdaq futures were up 0.39%. Overnight, the major indices closed mixed as investors took to the sidelines ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting, monthly job figures and the renewal of US-China trade talks.

Back home, a mixed market saw gains in metals & mining 2.3%, gold 2%, energy 0.7% and health 0.4% largely cancelled by falls in industrials -1.1%, I.T. -0.8% and financials 0.7%.

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.57%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.49% andJapan's Nikkei 0.62%.

Crude oil futures shed six cents or 0.11% this morning to US$53.25 a barrel. Gold futures advanced $3 or 0.23%to US$1,318.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.84 US cents.

 

 

Trading: missed two good (and pretty obvious) runners in SPT and BLK. (Memo to self: do more homework pre-market.) Opened a trade in OLI but bailed for brokerage when the controlled nature of the selling became obvious. A dumb trade that got what it deserved. Eyeing a couple of others but yet to jump.