Afternoon trading June 14

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Aussie shares consolidated a week of strong gains as rising tensions in the Middle East kept a lid on risk appetite.

The ASX 200 tracked sideways for a third day, lately up six points or 0.1 per cent at 6549. Despite this morning's lacklustre action, the benchmark index remained on track for a second straight weekly advance thanks to a 102-point surge on Tuesday when the market reopened following the Queen's Birthday long weekend holiday.

Today delivered another mixed market after news of attacks on two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz capped Wall Street gains. Higher energy prices are a headwind for most businesses, and Texas crude briefly spiked as high as $US53.45 a barrel overnight before settling at $US52.28. The S&P 500 recovered late in the session to seal a rise of 0.41 per cent.

Energy stocks were the obvious beneficiary here from the attacks, along with the gold sector, a traditional haven in times of uncertainty. Santos put on 2.1 per cent, Woodside 2 per cent and Oil Search 2 per cent. Among gold miners, Saracen Mineral put on 4.8 per cent, Regis Resources 3.4 per cent and Newcrest 2.8 per cent.

The other big gainers this morning were iron ore miners after the price of ore burst to a new five-year peak. Ore for steel-making improved 3.3 per cent to $US110.16 a tonne, extending its gain for 2019 beyond 50 per cent. That helped lift BHP 1.9 per cent to a near-eight-year high. Rio Tinto rose 3.3 per cent and Fortescue 5.2 per cent.

The financial sector cancelled out most of those gains as a crackdown on AMP by the financial services regulator, APRA, sent shivers through boardrooms. AMP shares dived 5.1 per cent after APRA imposed extra conditions on AMP's superannuation operation as part of the fallout from revelations at the Hayne Royal Commission. The banks all edged lower, CBA down 1.1 per cent, ANZ 1 per cent, NAB 1.2 per cent and Westpac 1.3 per cent. Asset manager IOOF Holdings lost 5.1 per cent.

Buy-now-pay-later leader Afterpay continued to lose ground after yesterday's intervention by federal financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC. Afterpay was among the worst performers on the index this morning, declining another 5 per cent to a ten-week low.

There were slim pickings at the speculative end of the market. Perth explorer Tasman Resources rallied 17.9 per cent after announcing it had secured Fortescue as joint-venture partner to explore ground 30 km north of BHP's fabled Olympic Dam in South Australia. Agtech junior Croplogic advanced 20 per cent to its highest point in more than a year.

A mixed morning on Asian markets saw China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng off 0.3 percent and Japan's Nikkei ahead 0.3 per cent. S&P 500 index futures were recently up three points or 0.1 per cent.

Turning to commodity markets, Texas crude futures retraced this morning, lately down 12 cents or 0.2 per cent to $US52.17 a barrel. Gold futures improved $6.50 or 0.5 per cent to $US1,350.20 an ounce.

On currency markets, the dollar was buying 69 US cents.

Very sorry to see Bugsam retire from the pre-market slot. Many thanks for your service. You had some big shoes to fill after Cleo, but did so with great skill and wit. We've been spoilt this last while. The great thing about the thread openers is that everyone brings something different to the table. You've lifted the benchmark. Still, the pre-market open can be anything anyone wants it to be. I hope someone out there will put their hand up to take it on.
Trading: took advantage of the early weakness in recent REE faves to climb aboard. Took GGG. Watching ARU.