Afternoon trading Nov 24

Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Cleo: glad you're on the mend. I went through something similar if a lot less dramatic a few years back. Ruined my career as a shoulder model.


Half-time round-up:

The ASX looked set to end the trading week near where it started as a market holiday in the US overnight sidelined traders.

The benchmark Australian index, the ASX 200, eased 18 points or 0.3% to 5968, this morning, just ahead of the 5957 level where it opened the week. A positive front-half of the week petered out over the last two sessions as last night's Thanksgiving holiday in the US dampened buyer interest. Wall Street resumes tonight for a holiday-shortened session, but volumes are again expected to be weak as many institutional traders stay home for a long weekend.

US equity futures were neutral ahead of tonight's session following a flat close in Europe overnight. S&P 500 futures were lately up 1.75 points or 0.07%.

China's Shanghai Composite staged a tentative rebound from yesterday's heavy 2.26% plunge, lately up 0.15%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng put on 0.63% and Japan's Nikkei shed 0.53%.

Crude oil futures rumbled higher, lately up 44 cents or 0.78% this morning to US$58.46 a barrel. Gold futures retreated 80 cents or 0.06% to US$1,296 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.25 US cents.


What a month this has been - the best monthly return in several years in my case, and that's with a week left to go. Made me realise just how slow the market has been for much of the last few years. Absence of themes/market-movers. Might be nostalgia colouring my memory, but I'm not sure sentiment ever truly recovered from 2008. If only things were always this good. Trading: another straightforward morning. Profits taken in PVD and NOR. Waiting for CLA to come good.