A rebound in mining stocks helped the ASX recover from early losses this morning.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 13 points or 0.29% at 4698 after earlier touching a two-week low. The mining sector did much of the heavy lifting, rising 0.6% after yesterday's sell-off. Also strong were health +1.1%, IT +0.9% and telecoms +0.7%.
An index of skilled jobs ads touched its highest level in seven and a half years - another sign that that the economy is rebounding. Skilled vacancies rose 2.4% per cent this month, following a 1.9% increase last month.
The Reserve Bank remains upbeat about the future. This morning RBA deputy governor Ric Battellino said expansion will be fuelled by growth in Asian economies. His comments point to further interest rate rises in the months ahead.
An improvement in Japan's trade balance helped the Nikkei inch into positive territory this morning. The index rose 0.03%. Shanghai was up 0.1% in early trade and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.37%. Dow futures were neutral at +6.
The spot gold price edged more than $4 higher this morning to $1,169.10 an ounce. Crude oil futures slipped around 25 cents to $75.89 a barrel.
A turgid morning here. This market is mushy and tricky to trade. Out of ABC from yesterday for a skinny profit. First hint of a bottom in OEX - the Timor drilling program currently underway should eventually garner some interest. Still holding BCC from yesterday - another potential short-term bottom building here. Grabbed some SPT and CXP on pullback. In the queue for RSN.
