Afternoon trading Nov 14

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market slumped towards its first three-session losing run in five weeks, surrendering its hold on 6000 ahead of a mid-session Chinese economic update.

The ASX 200 dived 51 points or 0.8% to 5971 following another lacklustre session on Wall Street overnight as a potential delay in President Trump's tax cuts continued to dampen buyer enthusiasm. Energy stocks led the retrace, falling 2.2%. Also weak were utilities -1.4%, health -1.4% and industrials -0.9%. The financials sector shed 0.7% and materials 0.7%.

The market was unmoved by news that domestic business conditions hit record levels last month. NAB's conditions index surged seven points to 21 points. Business confidence also came in well above its long-term average.

The weakness came before the monthly Chinese economic update due at 1pm EST, with economists predicting moderating growth in industrial production and asset investment. This morning the Shanghai Composite eased 0.06%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.21% and Japan's Nikkei added 0.45%. Dow futures were recently down three points or 0.01%.

Crude oil futures eased four cents or 0.07% this morning to US$56.72 a barrel. Gold futures slipped $1.50 or 0.12% to US$1,277.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.39 US cents.


Gnarly morning. The big end has lost momentum and some of that weakness has infected the specs. Last week you could pretty much buy anything moving in either direction and make money. This week seems trickier. My wins  yesterday were chopped by a nasty loss. Today feels potentially similar. Profits taken in SGC, EUC and AVZ. Waiting for DEG and IPT to come good.