Afternoon trading Sep 18

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Upbeat US equity futures helped Australian shares rally for the first time in four sessions, led by the big banks.

The ASX 200 advanced 30 points or 0.5% to 5725 by the midway point of the session following a record close on Wall Street on Friday and positive signals this morning that the US rally may continue tonight. S&P 500 futures improved 5.75 points or 0.23%. Dow futures were lately up 62 points or 0.28%.

The gains came despite concerns that markets face a road bump as central banks start to wind back the stimulus programs that dragged the global economy out of the post-GFC malaise. The US Federal Reserve meets this week and is expected to unveil plans to repair its balance sheet.

"[D]raining the economy of cheap money can't be viewed as a positive for markets accustomed to feeding off central bank largess. Why investors are so complacent is a mystery, but perhaps the reality check will set in midweek,"  Stephen Innes, APAC head of trading at OANDA, told CNBC.

Leading the Australian rise this morning were financials +0.9%, energy +0.6% and consumer discretionary +0.6%. Capping the rally were declines in telecoms -0.5%, gold -04% and IT -0.1%. China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.41% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.93%. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a public holiday.

Crude oil started the week on a steady note, dead flat at US$49.89 a barrel. Gold futures fell $2.80 or 0.21% to US$1,322.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 80.29 US cents.


Been looking back through the charts and can't find any precedent over the last few decades for the sort of sideways action we've seen on the XJO these last four months. Just doesn't happen. Means something, this long crab, but what? Trading: caught the bounce in BUX. RFN coming good from last week.