Day Trading May 22 afternoon

Thanks Shelby - onya.


Half-time round-up:

Shares rebounded from Friday's eight-week closing low as Asian markets followed Wall Street higher and crude oil extended its recovery through US$50 a barrel.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 47 points or 0.8% ahead at 5774 and on track to break a run of three losses that dragged the market to its lowest point since late March and its worst weekly loss of the year: -1.9%. A buoyant session today saw the metals & mining sector surge 2.6% on the back of stronger metal prices, energy 2.3%, materials 2% and financials 0.6%. The defensive health (-0.4%) and consumer staples (-0.1%) missed the upswing.

Crude oil continued to improve ahead of Thursday's OPEC meeting. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were this morning up 47 cents or 0.93% at US$50.80 a barrel.

"It's a big week for oil with the OPEC meeting in Vienna taking place on Thursday and the market having already digested news that both Russia and the Saudis have advocated a nine-month extension [to current production curbs]," IG Chief Market Strategist Chris Weston told CNBC. "(T)he key question here this week is with price rallying into the meeting, will the outcome live up to expectations or will traders sell the fact?"

China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.09%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.88% and Japan's Nikkei 0.3%. Dow futures were recently ahead 21 points or 0.1%.

Gold futures eased $1.50 or 0.12% to US$1,252.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 74.48 US cents.


Nice rebound at the big end of the market this morning. Still waiting for confidence to improve at the spec end. Must be a lot of money waiting for a new home, considering how hard the specs have copped it over the last couple of months. The next theme, when it finally develops, could see some big, crowded moves. But when?