Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
Renewed optimism over US-China trade talks fired Aussie shares higher as Asianmarkets and US index futures welcomed weekend news of a truce. The ASX 200 rallied 34 points or 0.5 per cent to6653 on the first session of the new fiscal year. Riskassets were back in vogue after the White House and China agreed to re-opentrade negotiations after a six-week stalemate.
Energy and I.T. were the pick of the sectors this morning. Oil companies got aleg-up from a surge in crude ahead of this week's OPEC gathering ofoil-producing nations, due to commence later today. Santos rallied 1.8 per cent,Origin 1.4 per cent and Woodside 0.8 per cent. Texas crude this morning jumped $1.22 or 2.1 percent to $US59.92 a barrel.
The tech sector, which tends to wax and wane with risk appetite, put on 2.2 per cent despite a rough morning for buy-now-pay-later companies (see below). Wisetech added 3.7 per cent, Altium 2.8 per cent and Technology One 2.4 per cent.
Gains were more muted among the market heavyweights. BHP put on 1 per cent and Rio Tinto 0.9 per cent. A 0.8 per cent fall in CBA kept a lid on the financial sector. ANZ gained 0.3 per cent, NAB 0.7 per cent and Westpac 0.3 per cent.
What's hot today and what's not:
Hot today: shares in health tech specialist Medibio tripled after the company announced UK multinational Compass Group will trial Medibio's mobile application for early screening of mental health problems. Compass employs roughly 600,000 people and operates in 45 countries. Shares in Medibio soared from 0.9 cents to a high of 3.2 cents and were lately trading at 2.6 cents, a rise of 189 per cent.
Not today: leading buy-now-pay-later companies hit the skids as shareholders fretted about the impact of the entry of global giant Visa into the marketplace. Market leader Afterpay shed as much as 15 per cent when the news broke late on Friday and another10 per cent at its low today. Shares in the company had lately pared today's loss to 2.7 per cent. Rival Z1P shed 5.3 per cent. Splitit declined 2.4 per cent despite announcing a partnership with online retailer Kogan.
US index futures applauded the resumption of trade talks. S&P 500 futures were lately ahead 24 points or 0.8 per cent. Nasdaq futures charged 94 points or 1.2 per cent higher on news that tech companies will be able to restart working with Chinese giant Huawei.
China's Shanghai Composite and Japan's Nikkei both bounced 1.8 per cent. The Chinese gains came despite news this morning that a gauge of factory activity contracted last month for the first time since February. Caixin's June manufacturing purchasing managers' index eased to 49.4 from a May reading of 50.2.
Turning to commodity markets, gold slumped back under $1,400 an ounce as traders rotated out of defensive assets. Gold futures fell $18.60 or 1.3 per cent to $US1,395.10an ounce.
On currency markets, the dollarslipped more than a fifth of a cent to 70 US cents.
Trading: hindsight says APT was a big fat buy at the open. Moved too quickly for me. Hoped it would go lower before reversing. Instead took a first dabble in VGI on retrace. That one's definitely not moving too quickly. May need a day or two.
