Afternoon trading November 20

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market retested October's 20-month closing low as tech stocks bore the brunt of a brutal night on Wall Street.

The ASX 200 fell 45 points or 0.8% to 5649 mid-session, below the 5664 close that marked the nadir of the October sell-off. The I.T. sector was hit hardest, falling 2.6% after the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 3.03% overnight in the US with the so-called FAANG group of tech heavyweights all now in technical bear markets. Also suffering here this morning: health -1.9%, Small Ords -1.4%, financials -0.7% and materials -0.4%. The defensive gold sector improved 0.9%.

US futures remained depressed this morning following a 1.66% dive on the S&P 500 overnight after tensions at the APEC summit underlined the growing gulf between the US and China. S&P 500 futures were recently down 3.75 points or 0.14%. China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.51%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.05% andJapan's Nikkei 0.75%.

Crude oil futures edged up five cents or 0.09% this morning to US$57.25 a barrel. Gold futures eased $3.10 or 0.25%to US$1,222.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.94 US cents.

Trading: got the measly half-pip on offer from FOD. Was too eager on IRI but averaged down and out with peanuts. Small dabble in DTS.