Afternoon trading Oct 12

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares marked time near a seven-week high as declines in miners offset gains in yield stocks.

The ASX 200 overcame initial weakness to reach the mid-point of the session five points or 0.1% higher at 5777. The index yesterday rallied to its highest point since August.

This morning rises in utilities +1%, health +0.8% and financials +0.1% were largely cancelled out by falls in metals & mining -1.2%, materials -1%, gold -0.6% and consumer discretionary -0.1%. Resource stocks came under pressure after Chinese steel marked a two-month low ahead of government-enforced production cuts to reduce winter pollution.

US futures faded following another round of record closes for the major indices on Wall Street overnight. Dow futures were recently down nine points or 0.04%. China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.03% and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.31%.

Crude oil futures slid 28 cents or 0.55% this morning to US$51.02 a barrel. Gold futures put on $5.70 or 0.45% to US$1,294.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 78.08 US cents.


Market seems to be taking a breather after what was - by recent standards - a substantial 100+ point rally over the last few sessions. Remember when we used to get those in a day? Sheesh, this is a sluggish market. Trading: caught the low in MSM but only for a peanut part-fill. CDT gave a wage. Also took MTC.