daytrade diaries... january 22 part 2

Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks sagged nearly 2% this morning as deteriorating commodity prices and worries over financial regulation in the U.S. took their toll.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 83 points or 1.72% at 4744, the lowest level since before Christmas. All sectors were down, with metals & mining -2.7%, materials -2.5% and gold -2.5% hit hardest. Financial stocks were 2% lower. Defensive sectors fared best.

"Investors (are) following Wall St blindly without considering (that) the reasons dont really apply here," RBS Morgans equities adviser Geoff Voller told Fairfax. "Our banks are strong and dont do the proprietary trading the US banks do."

Australian Agricultural Company slumped more than 5% after downgrading profit guidance. The grazier expects to report a loss of $53-$60 million for 2009.

In the U.S., a string of companies traded lower after reporting earnings after this morning's closing bell. Google was recently down 4.8%, AMD 4.1% and Amex 2.35%.

Asian markets continued the global rout. Japan's Nikkei dumped 2.75%, Shanghai 0.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.6%. Dow futures were recently at -3.

The spot gold price drifted sideways, recently 90 cents lower this morning at $1,093.90 an ounce. Crude oil futures also softened, down 17 cents to $75.83 a barrel.



Some great posts on the thread this morning, guys. The quality of posts here just keeps getting better.

Obviously a lousy day for almost any share held overnight but a terrific morning for bounce trading. I grabbed AWE, PEM, MGX and MMX near their lows and rode the recoveries. Sold too soon, as always, but still it has been the most profitable day of the week.

PS I'm installing a new PC over the weekend. If the morning wrap hasn't been posted by 8.20 am Monday, things have not gone well...