Afternoon trading November 19

Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Welcome back, Cleo.


Half-time round-up:

Shares deteriorated for the fourth time in five sessions as heightened tensions between China and the US at the APEC summit depressed US equity futures.

The ASX 200 opened flat before fading to a mid-session loss of 38 points or 0.7% at 5693 as US futures signalled the possibility of a weak start to Wall Street trade tonight. S&P 500 futures were recently down 8.15 points or 0.3% but trading above their lows.

The failure of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to issue the traditional joint closing statement by attending countries underlined the widening disagreement between the world's two superpowers. US Vice President Mike Pence used the occasion to list his administration's issues with China.

"They begin with trade practices, with tariffs and quotas, forced technology transfers, the theft of intellectual property. It goes beyond that to freedom of navigation in the seas, concerns about human rights," Pence told reporters, according to CNBC.

Australian losses were topped by the I.T. sector -1.8%, energy -1.3% and utilities -1.1%. The financials sector dropped 1% and materials 0.1%. Defensive gold stocks rallied 1.8% and metals & mining 0.2%.

Asian markets appeared more relaxed. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.11%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.43% andJapan's Nikkei 0.39%.

Crude oil futures bounced out of the gate to start a new week, rising 74 cents or 1.31% to US$57.20 a barrel. Gold futures edged up 30 cents or 0.0.2%to US$1,223.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.21 US cents.

Sluggish session. Got something out of the rebound in VEA but should have had more of the range. Small dabble in A3D.