Afternoon trading Sep 6

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market dropped to a one-week low before staging a partial rebound as data showed the economy gathered pace last quarter.

The ASX 200 fell as low as 5663 before paring its loss to 26 points or 0.5% at 5680 as the big banks struggled off a two-month low and gold stocks continued their bull run. The gold sector put on 1.1%, energy 0.7% and health 0.4%. The financial sector was off 1.4%.

Quarterly GDP figures showed the economy grew at a rate of 0.8% last quarter, up from 0.3% in the first three months of the year, and broadly in line with expectations.

"Recent swings in coal and iron ore prices have had significant effects on the Australian economy in terms of export revenues and real incomes, though export volumes continued to grow in the June quarter," ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman told Fairfax. "Dwelling construction remains at elevated levels, although new residential building approvals are on the decline."


US equity futures steadied after a sharp fall in the underlying indices overnight as the US resumed trade after a long weekend when North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb. Dow futures were recently down 17 points or 0.08%. China's Shanghai Composite gave up 0.53%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.88% and Japan's Nikkei 0.31%.

Crude oil futures retreated ten cents or 0.21% this morning to US$48.56 a barrel. Gold futures drifted 30 cents or 0.02% lower to US$1,344.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.96 US cents.


Trading: got something out of the bounce in RMX. Cut and run on RLE from yesterday at a slim profit.