Afternoon trading March 14

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares declined for a second day after further turbulence at the White House unsettled regional markets.

The ASX 200 dropped 46 points or 0.8% to 5929 following the firing of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Trump administration's decision to block Singapore-based Broadcom's takeover of Qualcomm on national security grounds. China's Shanghai Composite lost 0.25%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.11% and Japan's Nikkei 0.89%.

Overnight, the S&P 500 lost 0.64% amid fears that last night's White House moves may exacerbate tensions with China and risk retaliation. S&P 500 futures were recently off 6.25 points or 0.23%.

"The worry is with the Tillerson ouster and Broadcom blockage from the Trump administration that this will add fuel to the fire in a battle versus China on the horizon over the coming 12 to 18 months," Dan Ives, head of technology research at GBH Insights, told CNBC.

Here, the telecoms sector lost 2%, utilities 0.7% and health 0.7%. The financial sector shed 1% following a string of negative headlines yesterday as the Royal Commission into banking got underway.

Crude oil futures bounced 10 cents or 0.16% this morning to US$60.81 a barrel. Gold futures dipped 50 cents or 0.04% to US$1,326.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 78.59 US cents.



Trading: tricky morning. Took a couple of pips from CKA, but buys in DEM and CFE have yet to come good.