daytrade diaries... january 12 part 2

Half-time round-up:

The Australian stock market suffered its heaviest fall in a month this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 44 points or 0.89% at 4906, dragged lower by losses in the mining (-1.7%) and materials sectors (-1.6%). Gold (+0.4%) and utilities (+0.4%) were the only sectors trading in positive territory.

In economic news, Australians took out fewer home loans than expected in November as interest rate rises kicked in. Home loans were down 5.6%, seasonally adjusted, worse than the 0.5% dip that economists expected.

Asian markets were lower. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.1%, Shanghai 0.76% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.15%. Dow futures were down 14 points after Alcoa missed profit expectations.

Crude oil futures drifted 30 cents lower to $81.94 a barrel. The spot gold price inched 50 cents higher this morning to $1,152.50 an ounce.


Tough morning. Scalped slim early bounces in PDN and CZA but gave some back on a mistimed trade in TRF. Got into BTA too early.