daytrades dec 14 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

The Australian share market is higher for a fourth day, with strength in mining stocks countering mild falls among several big banks.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 14 points or 0.3% at 4771, with IT +1.3%, gold +1.1% and metals & mining +0.9% leading the way. Utilities were the softest sector, down 2.1%, ahead of financials, down -0.4% as some of yesterday's enthusiasm for the government's bank reforms wore off.

"Commodities were again higher overnight and that seems to be supporting stocks," IG Markets institutional dealer Chris Weston told Fairfax. "We seem to be in a very strong patch for the equity market. The ASX200 has been up 25 out of the last 30 years from mid-December until January 10th."

The market was largely unmoved by weak readings for housing starts and business confidence. Housing starts fell a seasonally-adjusted 13.2% last quarter, according to an Australian Bureau of Statistics report. The fall was the heaviest since 2008 and much larger than the 5% dip expected by analysts. Meanwhile, business conditions and confidence remained below long-term averages last month.

"Conditions in construction and recreation picked up but retail and wholesale drifted further into negative territory," NAB said in a statement quoted on Fairfax.

The dollar held most of its ground following a bounce of around a cent overnight as the U.S. dollar was hurt by a warning from ratings agency Moodys over government plans to extend tax cuts. The Aussie was recently buying 99.63 U.S. cents.

Asian markets edged higher. Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.07%, Shanghai 0.13% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.57%. Dow futures were recently at -5.

Crude oil futures rallied 14 cents this morning to $88.41 a barrel. Spot gold was $4.30 stronger at $1,399.30 an ounce.


Plenty of action, but I avoided most of it. Could have marketed myself as trade repellent this morning - every time I placed an order the market headed in the opposite direction. Just two trades completed - in and out of WCN for brokerage and had a skinny scalp in MMR. Well done to those who have done well today. I'm taking an early mark to paint the house - at least I'll have something to show for my efforts, lol.