Afternoon trading October 31

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares clung to a third day of gains as benign local inflation data offset disappointing Chinese factory output.

The ASX 200 edged up 19 points or 0.3% to 5824 mid-session, extending its thee-session gain this week beyond 150 points as the mood on global markets improved. Overnight, the S&P 500 in the US jumped 1.57% after President Donald Trump signalled his administration's willingness to sign a trade deal with China. S&P 500 futures were recently ahead 3.75 points or 0.14%.

A choppy morning on the local index saw gains for the financial sector +1.2%, utilities +1.1% and energy +1% limited by declines in telecoms -1.3%, gold -1% and metals & mining -0.8%. Resource stocks were hampered by news that China's official manufacturing yardstick, the purchasing managers' index, eased to 50.2 this month from 50.8 in September. Economists had anticipated a milder decline to 50.6.

Back home, inflation figures came in slightly weaker than expected. The quarterly consumer price index increased by 0.4% over the three months to September, just short of the 0.5% predicted by economists.

"Annual growth in the CPI fell back below 2 per cent in the September quarter 2018," ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman told Fairfax. "Modest rises in housing costs, including rents, utilities and property rates, and a fall in child care out-of-pocket expenses, saw a subdued rise in the CPI this quarter."

China's Shanghai Composite was little changed at the open at +0.02%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.72% andJapan's Nikkei 1.4%.

Crude oil futures rebounded 27 cents or 0.41% this morning to US$66.45 a barrel. Gold futures faded $3 or 0.24%to US$1,222 an ounce. The dollar was buying 70.83 US cents.

Trading: lacklustre session. Missed the early surges in CTD and DSE, due to clearing dog vomit off the living-room rug. (OT: what is it about kids and dogs that draws them to rugs when they need to expel something through an orifice? What's wrong with the floorboards? They're so much easier to clean. Our rug is like a vomit/poop magnet. I may as well paint a target on it.) Once I'd cleaned up I squeezed a pip out of BSM and had a first dab at RAC.