Afternoon trading Nov 9

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The market probed fresh nine-year highs this morning, led by resource stocks.

The ASX 200 was up 23 points or 0.4% at 6039 at the halfway stage after hitting 6043, its strongest level since January 2008. Leading the rally were the materials sector +1%, metals & mining +1%, industrials +0.5% and IT +0.5%. Telecoms was the worst of the laggards, falling 0.1%. The financials sector was steady as NAB traded without its dividend.

Overnight, US stocks closed at record levels, boosting risk sentiment across the Asia-Pacific. Hong Kong's Hang Seng put on 0.69% and Japan's Nikkei 1.28%. China's Shanghai Composite was flat at -0.02%, Dow futures were recently up 31 points or 0.13%.

“It is a case of equity markets in emerging economies, already firm on internal demand and growth, being lifted by gains in those of developed economies,” Kota Hirayama, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Japan, told Reuters. “Each country obviously has its own particular factors affecting local markets, but US equities continue to drive overall risk sentiment.”

Crude oil futures edged up 10 cents or 0.18% this morning to US$56.91 a barrel. Gold futures slid $2.50 or 0.19% to US$1,281.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.77 US cents.


Worth noting how many of us are reporting strong profits this week. While it's possible we've all simultaneously raised our trading game several notches for unrelated reasons, a more likely explanation is that these are exceptional trading conditions. (And by 'exceptional', I mean they are not the norm, and therefore won't last.) A strong bull market makes geniuses of us all, just as a bear market fits us with clown shoes and red noses. Make hay while the sun shines, but be wary of confusing success in these conditions with some sort of quantum leap in ability. Right now every day in the spec market is like playing for Real Madrid against a village pub team - there's something wrong if you're not scoring. Trading: slower morning than yesterday, but solid profits taken on NLI and AU8.