Afternoon trading March 19

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market gave up early gains as US equity futures turned negative and revelations at the Royal Commission continued to pressure bank stocks.

The ASX 200 erased a 33-point rally to reach mid-session ahead just one point or less than 0.1% at 5950 as US equity futures reacted to a data scandal at Facebook, a plunge in Bitcoin and the latest shots in President Trump's Twitter war with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. S&P 500 futures were recently down 7.15 points or 0.26%. Nasdaq futures tumbled 113 points or 1.51% amid nerves about investor reaction to news of alleged data abuse at Facebook. Read more here.

The financial sector slid 0.2% to a one-month low as the Hayne Royal Commission continued to probe allegations of misconduct among the nation's largest banks. Other notable falls included consumer staples -1%, IT -0.9% and health -0.6%. Energy stocks topped the gainers, up 1.3%, ahead of metals & mining +0.5% and utilities +0.4%.

Asian markets were cautious ahead of Wednesday's US Federal Reserve rate policy announcement and pres conference. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.39%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.4% and Japan's Nikkei 1.16%.

Crude oil futures shed 34 cents or 0.55% this morning to US$62 a barrel. Gold futures fell $1.40 or 0.11% to US$1,310.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.02 US cents.



Too many headwinds from the US emerging this morning. Trump went on a Twitter rant, Facebook allegedly allowed a data mining firm to exploit users' data (then blame the users) and Bitcoin suffered another fainting fit. Nasdaq futures look ugly - likely fear of government intervention if the social media giants can't or won't police themselves. Trading: regulation morning picking off lows in NUH and AVZ. Needed a few swings to build a winning position in the former - came lower than I expected. Got there in the end.