Thanks Oscar and morning punters. Anyone still here? This is one of the few days of the year I miss office life - the sweeps, the dressing up, the boozy corporate functions. Mind you, they were memorable because the rest of the time was so bloody awful.
Half-time round-up:
Shares moved higher for the week on modest, holiday-affected volume following a generally positive session in the US.
The ASX 200 advanced 37 points or 0.7% to 5855 mid-session, erasing yesterday's losses and extending last week's rebound from a 20-month low. Resource stocks set the running on Melbourne Cup day, the gold sector rising 1.6%, energy 1.4% and materials 1.1%. Support came from consumer staples +1.3% and financials +0.6%. Health stocks eased 0.9% and consumer discretionary 0.6%.
Trade this afternoon was expected to be overshadowed by the running of the Melbourne Cup and the release of the Reserve Bank's rate update and policy statement at 2.30pm EST.
US equity futures were steady ahead of tonight's midterm elections. S&P 500 futures were recently ahead 1.25 points or 0.05%. Overnight, the S&P 500 clawed out a gain of 0.56% despite a negative reaction to Apple's quarterly earnings, which helped drag the Nasdaq down 0.38%.
A mixed morning in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite off 0.4% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.04%, while Japan's Nikkei put on 0.91%.
Crude oil futures faded 21 cents or 0.33% this morning to US$62.89 a barrel. Gold futures held steady at US$1,232.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.06 US cents.
Trading: predictably slow morning, with punters looking to another another venue to splurge. I missed CLA but caught enough of JDR for a decent wage.
