Afternoon trading Sep 22

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares rebounded from yesterday's seven-month closing low before paring gains as US equity futures sagged following reports North Korea may test a nuclear bomb in the Pacific.

The ASX 200 rallied 33 points in early action before halving its gain to 16 points or 0.3% at 5672 at the midway mark. US futures retreated after North Korea's foreign minister told the United Nations the Hermit State might test a hydrogen bomb off-shore. S&P 500 futures were lately down eight points or 0.32%. Dow futures were off 70 points or 0.31%.

Gains in Australian financials +0.8%, telecoms +0.9% and consumer discretionary +0.4% were mostly offset by declines in industrials -0.7%, gold -0.7% and materials -0.3%.

The dollar steadied after its heaviest single-day fall in four months, lately buying 79.26 US cents. The Aussie was lowered yesterday by confirmation that the US Federal Reserve remains on course to raise rates again this year and up to three times next year.

"We expect AUD to continue to underperform and see a potential move down to US78¢," BK Asset Management's Kathy Lien told Fairfax.

Asian markets were hamstrung by the Korean news. South Korea's Kospi shed 0.68%, China's Shanghai Composite 0.39%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.71% and Japan's Nikkei 0.28%.

Crude oil futures rose four cents or 0.08% this morning to US$50.59 a barrel. Gold futures bounced $5.70 or 0.44% to US$1,300.50 an ounce.


Trading: hoped for some quickfire trades like yesterday, but wasn't to be. Heading off now for a camping trek in the beautiful Blue Mountains. The Great Outdoors: fresh air, exercise, wide open spaces, gorgeous vistas, starry skies. Also ravenous mosquitoes, backpack the size of a fridge, bad food out of a can, huddling in a sleeping bag for warmth at 7pm, sleepless night on a deflating mattress, aching legs and shoulders in the morning... Um, remind me why I'm doing this?