Afternoon trading May 23

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market's losing run looked set to extend into a fifth session as the big banks wallowed at three-week lows and energy giant Santos rejected a takeover offer.

The ASX 200 faded to a mid-session loss of 15 points or 0.25% at 6027 as gains in utilities +0.6%, telecoms +0.5% and metals & mining +0.1% were outweighed by declines in energy -2.8%, health -1% and financials -0.25%. STO was the biggest drag on the index, diving 9% after knocking back a $14.4 billion takeover attempt by US giant Harbour Energy.

Asian markets turned south after US President Donald Trump declared he was "not satisfied" with the results of trade talks with China. Read more here. Wall Street rallied earlier this week amid optimism that the talks had brought the two sides closer together. China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.6% this morning, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.92% and Japan's Nikkei 1.08%. S&P 500 futures were recently down 6.5 points or 0.24%.

Crude oil futures dipped 15 cents or 0.21% this morning to US$72.09 a barrel. Gold futures shed 20 cents or 0.1% to US$1,297.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.48 US cents.



Good to see some support on the thread for healthy eating (he says, tongue firmly in cheek). Go OLI. No idea about the business fundamentals, but the restaurants at least offer an alternative to the usual fried food outlets on the highways. I began buying a little early on the way south today, but averaged down to a decent entry and took profits on the way back up. Out now. Also had a dab at another minnow, but too thinly traded for this slot.