daytrades dec 17 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Stocks could be heading for their first negative close in seven sessions as falls in resource stocks and property trusts weigh on the market.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 8 points or 0.2% at 4775. Defensive sectors accounted for most of the morning's gains, with telecoms up 1%, health 0.8 and consumer staples +0.2%.

Shares in Hills Industries and Fisher and Paykel Appliances each fell more than 10% after both companies downgraded their profit forecasts. Hill blamed weakness in its steel pipe and tube business and Fisher cited "deteriorating retail trading conditions".

Asian markets were mildly weaker. Japan's Nikkei eased 0.09%, Shanghai 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.03%. Dow futures were recently at +3.

Crude oil futures clawed back 44 cents this morning to reach $88.18 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.10 stronger at $1,374.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 99.14 U.S. cents.


No real surprise to see the market take a breather today, given the overnight weakness in oil and metals. Hopefully we can maintain this upward drift through the Christmas doldrums. (I'm still haunted by the Christmas/New Year of 2007/08 when the market fell for something like 14 consecutive days. Ouch.) Just two new trades this morning - caught the early run on GWA and added OST near the low for any afternoon recovery. Took a small loss on GMR from yesterday. I think I'm mentally half on holiday already.