Afternoon trading Nov 22

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares rallied for the fourth time in five sessions after Wall Street scaled fresh highs ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving US market holiday.  

The ASX 200 reached the halfway mark stronger by 28 points or 0.5% at 5991 ,with resource and consumer stocks leading the way. The energy sector added 1.4%, consumer staples 1.1%, metals & mining 1.1% and materials 1%. At the other end, gold stocks lost 0.6%, utilities 0.6% and telecoms 0.2%.

The gains were built on another record close on Wall Street overnight as traders took advantage of soft holiday-week volumes. The S&P 500 put on 0.65% and the Nasdaq 1.05%. This morning S&P 500 futures were off half a point or 0.02%.

"Given the time of year and the prospect that a number of big US money managers have taken an extended break this week and with S&P 500 implied volatility (i.e. the "VIX) now back below 10%, one can say that the leads we have for Asia today are about as upbeat for risk appetite as one will see," IG strategist Chris Weston told Fairfax.

There were solid gains across Asia, including China's Shanghai Composite up 0.55%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.8% and Japan's Nikkei 0.84%.

Crude oil futures surged another 81 cents or 1.43% this morning to US$57.64 a barrel. Gold futures were off $1 or 0.08% at US$1,280.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.81 US cents.


The public holiday in the US tomorrow night might be a dampener in other circumstances, but the mood on the ASX remains positive enough that we should see further gains through to the end of the week. Spec market remains busy.
Trading: rode temporary reversals in ESE and GBR.