Thanks Oscar and morning crew. This is my last spin here for a couple of weeks. Thanks again to @Bugsam for offering to fill this slot in my absence. Onya.
Half-time round-up:
The ASX 200 punched through the 6000 level for the first time in six weeks as a recovery in the big banks overshadowed a down-night on Wall Street.
The benchmark index advanced 29 points or 0.5% to 6012 by the halfway mark as a well-received interim profit from ANZ sharpened expectations for the financial reporting season. The financial sector rose for a third day, putting on 1.1% despite a scathing review of CBA from the banking regulator, APRA.
Also making headway were industrials +0.6%, energy +0.6% and utilities +0.5%. Health stocks shed 0.6% and consumer staples 0.4%.
This morning's gains preceded a Reserve Bank rate statement at 2.30pm EST, although few analysts anticipated any shift in the central bank's position.
"All eyes will be on the RBA and Governor Lowe today," Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ, told CNBC. "We expect the policy outlook to be unchanged. With domestic factors offering little to offset, we expect global forces to continue to dominate, bringing the [Australian] dollar lower."
Wall Street sank overnight for the first time in four sessions. The S&P 500 gave up 0.82%. S&P 500 futures were recently up 3.25 points or 0.12%. Most Asian markets were closed for public holidays. Japan's Nikkei edged up 0.05%.
Crude oil futures tacked on 15 cents or 0.22% this morning to US$68.72 a barrel. Gold futures dropped $5.50 or 0.42% to US$1,313.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.4 US cents.
Trading: scraped some (warm) beer money out of VMY. Shoulda had AVZ - right entry level, too far down the queue. As others have noted, it's a tough market at present. Have some new themes drawn up and left on my desk ready for my return, thank you. Until then, trade safe and well.
