Afternoon trading October 2

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares threatened a 16-week closing low as the big banks sagged and relations between China and the US soured further.

The ASX 200 fell 50 points or 0.8% to 6123, beneath the September 13 close that marked the index's weakest finish since mid-June. The heavyweight financial sector did much of the damage, sliding 1.2% to its lowest point since June 18 as yesterday's soft housing data added to downward pressure from the Royal Commission. Also negative were health stocks -1.5%, utilities -1.1% and consumer discretionary -1.3%. The energy sector was the only bright spot in a sea of red, edging up 0.1%.

US equity futures trended south following reports that US Defense Secretary James Mattis had cancelled a planned visit to China as relations between the two countries continued to deteriorate. Read more here. S&P 500 futures were recently down 4.75 points or 0.16%. Trade on China's Shanghai Composite was suspended for a public holiday, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.43% and Japan's Nikkei gave up early gains, lately trading unchanged.

Crude oil futures continued to climb this morning, lately up another 23 cents or 0.31% at US$75.53 a barrel. Gold futures advanced $2.90 or 0.24% to US$1,194.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.24 US cents.



Trading: caught the first fleeting bounce in MSB for a solid win, but did not get nearly enough out of BNO, considering the range on offer. Frustrating. As for BIT, shakes head. Good for spec sentiment to see something go that hard.