Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:Australian shares touched a...

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Australian shares touched a three-week high then gave back much of the morning's gains as the big banks turned lower.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 8 points or 0.2% at 4684 but well off the morning high of 4717. Defensive sectors including telecoms, health and utilities were trading lower, and financials rolled over as the morning wore on, recently down 0.3%.

"A lot of risks that were plaguing markets earlier in the week have subsided," CMC Markets analyst David Taylor told Fairfax. "There's now a void of bad news which has given the market a bit of room to stride ahead."

In economic news, the services sector contracted for the ninth month this year as the strong dollar impacted on tourism and hospitality. The AIG/CBA Australian Performance of Services Index dropped 4.5 points to 46.2 last month. Readings below 50 indicate contraction.

Japan's Nikkei index set a six-month high this morning and and recently pulled back to trade at 0.17% ahead. Shanghai was 0.1% weaker and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.46%. Dow futures were recently at -19.

Crude oil futures eased 30 cents this morning to $87.72 a barrel. The spot gold price rebounded $6.70 to $1,391.20 an ounce. The dollar was little changed, buying 97.55 U.S. cents.


Disappointing to see the market revert to type with the sort of dreary fade after a bright start that local traders have come to know all too well. (I blame the big banks and expect a damning statement from Wayne Swan any minute.) Very easy to lose money in this sort of market. I'm ahead but my trading has been as shaky as the batting in Adelaide. Scraped a skinny profit out of the BYR pullback and doubled up in CPL after getting in too early. Also got some SPM on pullback. Hope no one here was hurt in the MYG pullback.