daytrades jan 12 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

The share market continued to trade sideways this morning as gains for resource stocks countered falls among industrials and the big banks.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was little changed for a third day, up 1 point or 0.3% at 4711 as the devastating floods in Queensland continued to weigh on sentiment. Gold (+1.2%), metals & mining (+1.2%) and materials (+1.1%) were the only sectors to record significant gains following an overnight rally in commodity prices.

The dollar fell to a one-month low as investors factored in the toll of the floods on the national economy. Economists expect the disaster to cut GDP by 0.2-0.5%. Reserve Bank board member Warwick McKibbin this morning said the hit could be as large as 1% or around $13 billion. The dollar was recently buying 98.58 U.S. cents after earlier touching 98.03.

"From a global perspective, the perception in the market-place is the holes in the armoury of the Australian economy are starting to show and as the impact of floods in Queensland continue to escalate, there's little doubt this perception of weakness in the economy will manifest in currency price action," Go Markets trader Christopher Gore told Fairfax.

A diverse range of companies this morning joined the growing list of those adversely impacted by the floods. Port and rail operator Asciano, retailer The Reject Shop, paint manufacturer Dulux and mining services operator Boom Logistics all said earnings would be hurt by the disaster.

Sentiment was brighter in Asia, where Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.45%, Shanghai 0.51% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.41%. Dow futures were recently at +3.

Crude oil futures eased 25 cents this morning to $91.13 a barrel. Spot gold was $4 stronger at $1,385 an ounce.


Still plenty of trading opportunities despite the overall market malaise. I rode the bounces in SDL and LEG but let both go too soon. Ahead on WTF and still holding from the intraday low.