daytrades july 19 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks have fallen for a third day despite a mild reaction from Asian markets to Friday's sharp sell-off on Wall Street.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 53 points or 1.2% at 4369, with all sectors except health trading lower. Hardest hit were consumer discretionary stocks -1.8%, industrials -1.7%, gold -1.6% and financials -1.6%.

"Defensive names aren't even outperforming that much," IG Markets research analyst Ben Potter told AAP. "I think it will be fairly quiet from here unless we see a dramatic reaction in Asia, but I think it will be a case of waiting for the next lead tonight."

Sundance Resources was the most traded share by volume after it emerged from a month-long trading halt imposed after the loss of the board of directors in a plane crash in Africa. SDL was recently off 1.5 cents or 11.5% at 11.5 cents.

Asian markets were mixed. Shanghai was recently ahead 0.7%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.65%. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a public holiday. Dow futures were recently at +19.

Crude oil futures slipped another 5 cents this morning to $75.80 a barrel. The spot gold price was unchanged at $1,193 an ounce. The Aussie dollar was higher against the major currencies, buying 0.8686 U.S. cents, up 0.25%.


A frustrating morning here marked by software problems and poor trading decisions. If I had to give myself a player rating today it would be 3/10. I was either too early, too late or shouldn't have been there at all. Currently holding ALL and PDN. Watching the XJO closely in case China drags us higher.