Morning all. No news from Nikk0 but if you happen to look in, buddy, let us know how things are going.
A significant disconnect developed last week between the performance of indexes here and in the US. On Friday the Dow slid to its lowest close since last year's November 20 bear market low. The Dow and the broader S&P index both lost 1% going into the President's Day long weekend to wrap up falls of around 5% for the week. In contrast, the ASX gained more than 2.5% last week. That was largely due to upside surprises here during a busy week of company reports. Can it continue? Long term, I doubt it, but in the short term much will depend on the horde of companies reporting this week.
I try to avoid trading companies just before they report because the action is unpredictable. I start each trading week with a list of companies due to report compiled from these two websites:
There are excellent short-term trading opportunities in either direction once companies report, so it pays to know who is up each day. Today's candidates include WES, BEN, CGF, CRG, FCL, IMD, AAX, KZL, MCR, MGX and SPT.
Back to Friday's action: the banking sector and REITs continued to weigh on US markets, with indices falling 5 - 6%. But oil miners prospered as the price of crude bounced 10% off an important support level to $37.50. Gold drifted 0.7% lower, while base metals generally flatlined.
Here, the SPI lost 22 points to 3495, so we can expect some initial weakness.
Aside from companies reporting today, I'll watch the likes of AIO, BKN, AWB and GPT for reversal trades. Good luck to all.
