An uptick in Chinese inflation and a rebound in the big banks helped the ASX overcome early weakness and soft US equity futures.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 27 points or 0.5% ahead at 5867 after earlier nudging a three-week low of 5816. The rebound came as investors bet the big banks will find ways to pass on a new levy announced in last night's federal budget. The financial sector was last up 0.2% after hitting a three-month low in early action. Also strong this morning: gold stocks +1.2%, metals & mining +1.4% and utilities +0.9%.
The index extended its gain after an 11.30am EST report showed consumer inflation in China improved to 1.2% last month from 0.9% in March, ahead of expectations. The report steadied concerns about a recent run of soft Chinese data. The Shanghai Composite put on 0.04% in early trade, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.63% and Japan's Nikkei 0.3%.
Dow futures were recently off 47 points or 0.22% after Disney's revenue missed expectations in a report released after the close of regular trade. S&P 500 futures slid 0.17%.
Crude oil futures bounced 35 cents or 0.76% this morning to US$46.23 a barrel. Gold futures put on $6.10 or 0.5% to US$1,222.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.56 US cents.
Infrastructure stocks are seeing some benefit from the budget. The banks took the hit from the proposed levy yesterday and therefore had room to rebound today. Trading: should have spent less time snorting at the QIN update and more time looking for trades. Yet to find a buy. No, just took THD.
