Afternoon trading November 7

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market was hostage to external events for a second day, edging higher with US futures as mid-term election results trickled in.

The ASX 200 crept up 12 points or 0.2% to 5887 during another session of below-average volume following yesterday's Victorian public holiday.

US futures slipped temporarily as the Democrats claimed a key swing seat in Virginia, but swiftly recovered. S&P 500 futures were recently ahead 8 points or 0.29%. China's Shanghai Composite retreated 0.34% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.26%. Japan's Nikkei put on 0.54%.

Back home, there were gains for IT stocks +0.7%, energy +0.5% and financials +0.3%, offsetting falls in utilities -0.4%, industrials -0.25% and metals & mining -0.1%.

Crude oil futures declined 40 cents or 0.64% this morning to US$61.81 a barrel. Gold futures improved $1.60 or 0.13%to US$1,228.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.23 US cents.

Too early to draw many conclusions about the US midterms, but they are likely to be a wet blanket on our market today. Wall Street tonight will be the litmus test. Trading: slim pickings where I normally fish. Got a pip out of LKE for a wage.