Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
Shares pared yesterday's strong gains after crude oil dipped below US$70 a barrel and US equity futures deteriorated.
The ASX 200 declined 13 points or 0.2% to 5926 mid-session, weighed down by falls in health and oil stocks after a report showed US crude supplies continued to rise last month. The energy sector dropped 0.8%. Overnight, the US Energy Information Administration reported a fourth straight weekly increase in US oil reserves, dragging West Texas Intermediate crude down 3% to US$69.75. Read more here. Crude futures staged a tepid rebound this morning, regaining eight cents or 0.11% at US$69.83 a barrel.
The health sector shed 0.8%, materials 0.5% and consumer discretionary 0.5%. Telecoms put on 1.1%, IT 0.7% and financials 0.1%.
US stocks closed mildly negative overnight after the latest minutes from the Reserve Bank showed policymakers committed to further rate rises. The S&P 500 dipped 0.03%. S&P 500 futures fell away this morning, lately down 8.75 points or 0.31%. China's Shanghai Composite fell 1.48%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.04% andJapan's Nikkei lost 0.35%.
Gold futures drifted $1.90 or 0.15%lower to US$1,225.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.17 US cents.
Interviewer: "So how was your morning, HL?" Me: "Pretty good. Bought JAT at 5.6c." Interviewer: "Wow! That's terrific - you caught the low in the best trade of the day. What did you sell at?'" Me: "5.8c." Interviewer: "Wait - what? Are you kidding me? It got to 8.3c." [Long silence. Crickets chirp.] Me: "Yeah. I missed the top by this much. On an unrelated matter, do you have a sick-bag?"
Some you get right, some you get so wrong it's not funny. I mean a win's a win, but... Also got something from SL1. I don't feel so bad about that one.
