daytrade diaries... october 22 part 2

Half-time round-up:

The local stock market fell sharply at 1 pm today on the release of Chinese economic data.

Trading flat before the release of the data, at lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 8 points or 0.17% at 4830 but well off the morning low of 4810 on strength in the mining sector. The miners rallied 0.4%, counterbalancing weakness in the gold, property trusts and consumer discretionary sectors.

Asian markets retreated ahead of the 1 pm (EST) release of Chinese economic data. The Nikkei was down 1.18% and South Korea was off 0.5%. Dow futures were at +9. The spot gold price inched $3 north to $1060.60. Crude oil futures bounced nearly 50 cents to $81.26 this morning.

The reaction to the Chinese numbers will likely dictate our direction this afternoon.

A quiet morning here. The BTA morning express left on schedule and delivered a decent profit for the second day in a row. It's starting to look like a safe buy at these levels. Squeezed a skinny scalp out of EMS but a partial fill made it barely worthwhile.