Thanks Oscar (welcome back).Half-time round-up:Shares turned...

Thanks Oscar (welcome back).


Half-time round-up:

Shares turned negative for the week amid nervous trade ahead of a much-anticipated meeting between US and Chinese leaders this weekend.

The ASX 200 dived almost 83 points before paring its loss to 63 points or 1.1% at 5694 mid-session as traders took to the sidelines. The index need to close above 5716 to avoid a second straight weekly loss.

Caution set in ahead of this weekend's G20 summit in Argentina where US President Donald Trump is set to sit down with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a meeting that is expected to determine US plans for further trade tariffs. Overnight, the S&P 500 closed 0.22% lower as the looming meeting overshadowed hints of a slowdown in the future pace of US rate rises. S&P 500 futures were recently off 3.75 points or 0.14%.

"Markets have been choppy this morning amid varying views on the prospect of any sort of trade deal this weekend between Trump and Xi at the G20," David de Garis, NAB director of economics and markets, told CNBC.

Here, energy was the only sector to make headway, rising 0.4% after US crude rebounded overnight after trading briefly below US$50 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were lately up another five cents or 0.1% this morning to US$51.50 a barrel. Leading lossmakers on the local market included consumer staples -3.1%, utilities -2.1%, financials -1.1%, industrials -0.9% and materials -0.3%.

Asian markets traded cautiously higher. China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.14%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.05% andJapan's Nikkei 0.01%.

Gold futures declined $1 or 0.08%this morning to US$1,229.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.14 US cents.

 

 

Trading: caught the low in CHK for a chunky pip. Hoped BIT would come lower before reversing, but no dice. Missed ADO twice.