Afternoon trading March 11

Thanks Endless and morning crew. You okay @Oscar09?


Half-time round-up:

The share market erased last week's gains in subdued, holiday-affected trade after a jobs shock sent Wall Street lower.

The ASX 200 fell 21 points or 0.4% to 6182, wiping out last week's slender 11-point rally. The decline came during a low-key session as public holidays in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT kept many traders from their desks.

Those who braved the market brought modest expectations following a fifth straight loss on Wall Street on Friday after soft US employment data compounded fears the global economy is running out of steam. Friday's monthly US jobs update was the worst since September 2017 and capped a rough 24 hours for share-market bulls following news that Chinese exports plunged 20% and Europe's central bank cuts its growth forecasts. The S&P 500 in the US sank 0.21% to cap its biggest weekly loss of the year.

Here, the local market opened weak and trended steadily lower. Energy stocks took the biggest hit, losing 1.6% after crude oil followed equities lower on Friday in a typical risk-off flight to safety. Gold was the only sector to buck the downtrend, rising 3.1% after Newcrest announced it had acquired a 70% interest in Canadian copper-gold mine. Fellow ASX 200 gold miners Saracen, Saint Barbara, Resolute and Evolution also saw gains after the precious metal traded briefly back above $US1,300 an ounce on Friday. Gold futures were lately trading just below that level at $US1,296.40 an ounce.

Financial asset manager Perpetual was the best performer on the ASX 200, rebounding 7.9% following a two-day sell-off at the end of last week. At the other end of the index, waste manager Bingo Industries slumped 5.9% towards a fifth straight loss.

The mood on Asian markets was fragile after China's Shanghai Composite plunged 4.4% on Friday to its heaviest fall of the year. This morning the index shed another 4%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.75% andJapan's Nikkei 1.9%.

US index futures pointed to the potential for further losses tonight. S&P 500 futures were recently down 3.25 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures edged up 12 cents or 0.2% this morning to $US56.19 a barrel. The dollar was buying 70.34 US cents.

Looking ahead to tonight, Wall Street has monthly retail sales figures due, which will be closely examined for further evidence of weakness in the economy. Brexit returns to the headlines tomorrow when the British parliament votes on a revised deal as the deadline looms for a British exit from the European Union. Tomorrow also brings a raft of domestic data, including home loans, business confidence, consumer sentiment and lastly a speech by the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank, Guy Debelle.

Trading: some good opportunities this morning: AHZ, WZR, GBG, SPT. Plenty to feed on. I caught part of the ride in SPT but my best trade was a bouncer - DEG off the low. SPT going parabolic - biggest returns, but highest risk of a reversal. More recently added CDX and EXL.