Afternoon trading September 6

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares slumped to a ten-week low this morning amid growing fears of a crisis in emerging markets.

The ASX 200 hit its weakest level since late June, lately down 70 points or 1.1% at 6161. The Nasdaq's worst night in a month helped send the local IT sector 3.1% lower. Health stocks shed 2.7% and a flight to the safety of the US dollar contributed to declines in gold stocks -1.9%, metals & mining -1.4% and materials -1.2%. Telecoms was the only sector to resist the downdraft, rising 2.2%.

Global markets remained on edge about stress signs in emerging markets exposed to the rampant greenback, including Turkey, Argentina and South Africa.

"Across global equity indices, the losses associated with the emerging market crisis (not to mention the trade war) persisted, with European indices all dropping more than 1 per cent; while their US counterparts also dipped, though were again less affected, demonstrating that region’s fundamental strength," IG Markets' Kyle Rodda told Fairfax. "The NASDAQ tumbled over 1 per cent, but that was due to scrutiny on the tech sector from a US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about social media and foreign influence on US elections. This backed up another day of dismal activity in Asian markets, which saw the CSI300 lead the region lower, down nearly 2 per cent."

A mixed morning on Asian markets saw China's Shanghai Composite bounce 0.35%, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng fall 0.24% and Japan's Nikkei 0.23%. S&P 500 futures were recently ahead 2.5 points or 0.09%.

Crude oil futures dipped 14 cents or 0.19% this morning to US$68.59 a barrel. Gold futures improved $3.40 or 0.28% to US$1,204.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.08 US cents.



Trading: been glued to KRC. What a tussle. Certainly looked like a capitulation-day opportunity, but took its time to bottom and bounce. I was in and out at higher levels but got back in when it really tanked. Second average entry price was higher than it needed to be, but slowly came good. Also traded AVL. Vanadium on the nose today?