Afternoon trading May 21

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares trimmed early losses as Asian markets welcomed weekend developments in US-China trade talks.

The ASX 200 fell as much as 0.3% in opening action before reducing the mid-session loss to six points or 0.1% at 6082. Traditional defensive sectors spearheaded the partial recovery, led by health stocks +1.3%, gold +1% and utilities +1%. The heavyweight materials and financial sectors fell 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.

Local sentiment was soothed by a bright start in Asia after the US and China appeared to narrow their differences over a trade dispute. A joint statement on Saturday committed both nations to "substantially" reducing the US's trade deficit with China.

"Markets should view this positively at the open this week, but will continue to be attentive to further developments," ANZ analysts said in a note quoted on CNBC.

China's Shanghai Composite rallied 0.62% this morning, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.21% and Japan's Nikkei 0.49%. S&P 500 futures surged 16.75 points or 0.62% in the hope a damaging trade war may still be averted.

Crude oil futures improved 51 cents or 0.72% this morning to US$71.79 a barrel. Gold futures slid $2.40 or 0.19% to US$1,288.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.25 US cents.



S66 is obviously the flavour of the moment. A spectacular trade for those smart enough to get in early. Well done. Bit late in the run for me, although these bolters often charge much higher than anyone might rationally anticipate. I'll wait for the inevitable pullback, which is likely to be proportionate to the scale of the rise. No complaints about this morning's work - caught most of the rebound in MMS, but should have gone in harder. Also scalped a couple of pips from BLG but only a part-fill.