daytrades april 6 afternoon

Thanks Barnsty. Anyone heard from Tweets? Her house move is taking a while - must have bought a mansion.

Half-time round-up: Shares were weaker for the first morning in seven at lunchtime as regional markets shrugged off China's interest rate rise and a flat night in the US.

At 1 pm the ASX 200 was off 4 points or 0.1% at 4896 as falls among banks and industrials overshadowed gains for miners and consumer and health stocks.

"The recent strong rally we've seen could be running out of steam, and there are some macro issues in the wind, with the markets focusing on the potential for a rate rise in Europe tomorrow night and any further news from the board of the US Federal Reserve with regards to QE2," CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy told Fairfax. "A slightly weaker oil price is not helping the scenario for energy stocks, but on the other hand we saw a new record high in gold last night and seen only a modest effect on the gold sector here today."

There were warning signs for the housing market, with the biggest month-on-month slump in NSW home loans in 14 years during February. The 10.1% fall in NSW dragged the number of home loans issued nationally down 5.6% for a second straight monthly decline.

"Home loan demand clearly struggled amid intense flooding across the eastern states in the early part of 2011, keeping homebuyers, investors and builders on the sidelines," Moody's Economy.com analyst Matthew Circosta told Fairfax. "Prior to January, home loan demand had been recovering on the back of falling unemployment and rising incomes, even amid higher borrowing costs."

Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.21% but Shanghai rallied 0.27% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.07%. Dow futures were recently at +13.

Gold pared its overnight gains this morning, sliding $4 to $1,454 an ounce. Crude oil futures recovered 10 cents at $107.97 a barrel. The dollar was buying US $1.0365.


Oh, for some volatility. This drowsy market is sending me to sleep. Managed a skinny scalp in THR and opened speculators in ESI and DTE on pullback.