Afternoon trading May 24

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market faded towards a possible sixth straight loss as renewed doubts over a China-US trade deal depressed most Asian markets.

The ASX 200 edged up seven points in early action before drifting to a mid-session loss of six points or 0.1% at 6026. The market has struggled for traction this week as the Royal Commission into banking weighed on the financial sector and a seven-week rally in resource stocks ran out of steam. Declines this morning in financials -0.8% and materials -0.2% overbalanced rises in consumer discretionary +1.4%, consumer staples +1.2% and gold 0.7%.

US stocks closed higher overnight after the Federal Reserve soothed concerns about the pace of interest rate rises this year. The S&P 500 put on 0.32%. However, US futures fell away with Asian markets this morning following reports that the Trump administration plans to introduce heavy tariffs on imported cars. Read more here. S&P 500 futures were recently off 6.5 points or 0.24%. China's Shanghai Composite eased 0.17% and Japan's Nikkei 1.1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.26%

Crude oil futures drifted down 16 cents or 0.22% this morning to US$71.68 a barrel. Gold futures lifted $4.90 or 0.38% to US$1,298.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.66 US cents.



Is today Friday? Man, it's slow. Placed a few buys but nothing hit so far. Will have to rearrange my sock drawer if things get any slower.