Daytraders afternoon August 18

Howdy all,

Can't say trading has been outstanding at this desk today. As of late, the markets seems to hesitate after an initial surge which suggest a little more confidence is needed generally. The tech end is where it is at at the moment, however i do note a few gold/copper specs getting a touch up. (thats a bit like a tickle)

Patience is the main attribute of a trader in these markets, there is no reason to be bailing out of trades at present, the spec end is quite forgiving unless you buy the tops which mitta keeps reminding traders not to do! (mitta is on a break atm i assume)

"Seems nobody has time for patience anymore" (not sure who said that, but i just did)

So whats been happening in the market news today?



12:43pm: Time for a mid-session update, and the ASX has wobbled higher helped by an assorted bunch of bluechips, including Westpac, Telstra and BHP.
Reporting season has thrown up some more winners and losers today. Among the bigger names to reveal earnings are QBE, which is 2.7 per cent higher, and Challenger, which has gained 4.6 per cent.
Monadelphous has jumped 8.3 per cent on its profits, but Dick Smith has been smashed 15 per cent.
Asciano is now up 7.5 per cent following a delayed start after the company confirmed a $8.9 billion bid.
CBA is weighing on the market as it falls 2.7 per cent as it trades ex-dividend.

12:21pm: Iron ore prices may tumble about 30 per cent over the next 18 months as supply expands while steel output falters, according to Goldman Sachs, which said the impact on the market from China's devaluation was a sideshow.
"Supply is likely to diverge further from demand," analysts Christian Lelong and Amber Cai wrote in a report. "Contrary to market consensus, we believe that peak-steel production will be followed by a contraction" in China, they wrote, sticking with price forecasts for the next four quarters.
Iron ore rebounded in the past five weeks from the lowest level since at least 2009 as steel prices advanced in China and shipments from the top exporters, Australia and Brazil, lagged behind expectations. China's government devalued the yuan last week, roiling commodities markets and spurring concern that import demand for dollar-denominated raw materials may drop.
"Arguably, the yuan devaluation and the recent supply disruptions are what we consider a sideshow for the iron ore market," the analysts said in the August 14 note. "Supply growth will resume in the short term."
Ore with 62 per cent delivered to Qingdao fell 0.1 per cent to $US56.66 a dry tonne on Monday. The commodity rose 0.6 per cent last week to post a fifth straight climb, Metal Bulletin data showed. While prices hit the highest since July 1 on Thursday after blasts in the Chinese port of Tianjin, they're 20 per cent lower this year.
Iron ore was seen by Goldman averaging $US49 a ton this quarter, $US48 in the final three months of 2015, $US46 in the first quarter of next year and $US44 the following quarter, according to the August 14 report. That's unchanged from a July 20 note from the bank. The 2016 forecast of $US44 was also retained.



11:54am: The People's Bank of China's (PBOC's) yuan reference rate is little changed at 6.3966 per US dollar, from 6.3969 yesterday.
But China's yuan may weaken 1.6 per cent to 6.50 per US dollar by end of the year following the introduction of the new fixing mechanism, according to the median estimate in Bloomberg's survey of 30 economists.
The surveyed economists also said the country's FX reserves could fall to between $US3 trillion and $3.71 trillion over the same period. The median estimate $US3.45 trillion, which would mean FX reserves would fall by 10 per cent from $US3.84t.
Meanwhile, the PBOC will continue to use FX reserves in order to stabilise the currency's exchange rate, Xu Gao, chief economist at Everbright Securities, said.
The capital outflow pressures should remain under the new fixing mechanism, Claudio Piron, Bank of America Merrill Lynch co-head of Asia FX & rates strategy in Singapore, said. Chinese firms will accumulate more foreign currencies to hedge against FX exposure to foreign debts. Mr Piron also said the yuan depreciation will be accompanied by monetary policy easing.

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Thanks to Brits and Speckle and good fortune to HLL on his helping out blue mountain roster today.

All the best

and of course

Do your best!!​