daytrade diaries... february 4 part 2

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares skidded lower this morning after a weak lead from overseas and mixed signals from local economic news.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 39 points or 0.85% at 4608 as resource stocks reversed direction and the big banks continued to suffer from the RBA's failure to hike interest rates. The falls were led by IT -2.1%, gold -2%, metals & mining -1.7% and materials -1.7%. Financials were down 0.9% while defensive sectors such as telcoms and utilities squeezed out modest gains.

The morning's economic news included a surprise fall in retail sales and a better-than expected rise in building approvals. Retail sales slipped 0.7% in December, well short of economists' exepctations of growth of 0.2%. The dollar sank on the news, falling a third of a US cent to trade under the 88 US cent mark. Department store Myer this morning confirmed weak Christmas trade but upgraded its first-half earnings guidance.

Building approvals jumped 2.2% in December, seasonally adjusted, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced this morning. The median forecast had been for no growth in December.

Asian markets followed Wall Street lower. Japan's Nikkei was off 0.45%, Shanghai 0.57% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.9%. Dow futures were at -9.

Crude oil futures dipped another 10 cents to $76.82 a barrel. The spot gold price was down 20 cents at $1,108.50 an ounce.


As mentioned earlier, the KAR rally put a huge smile on my face and then wiped it off by continuing miles past my two exit levels. Nice profits but... Also caught bounces in NKP and MQA to complete the most profitable morning of the week.

Gotta love this time of year. With the local profit season getting underway, volatility is rising and opportunities will knock.