daytrades dec 23 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

The Australian share market is on track for its strongest close since April as the dollar again flirts with parity with the U.S. greenback.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was higher for a third straight day, up 27 points or 0.6% at 4805. A broad rally carried all sectors higher except property trusts and utilities, many of which were trading ex-dividend.

The dollar again pushed through parity with the U.S. dollar overnight and reached a new record against the euro. The dollar was recently trading at 100.04 cents after earlier touching 100.11 cents. The local unit hit a high of 76.48 euro cents overnight and was recently trading at 76.29.

Asian markets were mixed. Shanghai was off 0.44% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.41%. Japan's Nikkei was closed for the Emperor's Birthday public holiday. Dow futures were recently at +4 ahead of the last trading session before Christmas.

Crude oil futures rallied 12 cents this morning to $90.72 a barrel. Spot gold edged $2.70 higher to $1,386.70 an ounce.


Great to see the market gliding through overhead resistance so effortlessly. Nice way to wind down for Christmas. I find trades harder to come by at this time of year but managed a fair morning, thanks to bounces in JMS and WLF. I'll probably take an early mark this arvo but be back at the usual time tomorrow for the die-hards. Merry Christmas to any regular readers signing off today.