daytrades june 2 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Australian shares followed Asian markets and U.S. futures higher this morning after the unpopular Japanese Prime Minister stepped down.

The ASX 200 opened in the red after a weak lead from Wall Street but recovered to trade 12 points or 0.3% higher at lunchtime at 4425. The advances were greatest among telecoms +2.4%, consumer staples +1.4% and health +0.7%.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned this morning, less than nine months after taking power. Hatoyama's approval ratings have plunged from more than 70% to less than 20% after a backflip over a controversial U.S. army base on Okinawa.

The yen fell against the euro, U.S. dollar and Australian dollar but shares turned higher, ending the morning session up 0.37%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was recently ahead 0.75%, while Shanghai was 0.55 lower. Dow futures were recently at a bullish +52.

The local market largely shrugged off evidence of slowing growth in the economy. Gross domestic product rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in the first quarter, down from a revised 1.1% rate of expansion in the previous quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. The result matched the consensus of economists in a Bloomberg poll.

The Treasury's executive director this morning warned that the deteriorating situation in Europe threatened the Australian economy but said strength in Asia offered support.

"The fiscal situation in Europe is very serious and how that is resolved remains to be seen," Dr David Gruen told an estimates hearing in Canberra." However, "Commodity prices remain at very high levels, in fact are consistent with further increases in negotiated prices for bulk commodities," he said.

Crude oil futures rebounded sharply this morning, rallying 67 cents to $72.63 a barrel. The spot gold price was off $1.80 at $1,223.20 an ounce. The Australian dollar was up against all major currencies, buying 0.8369 U.S. cents, a rise of 0.9%.


A flat morning here. Snared some nice bounces in IAG, QBE and to a lesser extent ARM, then gave nearly all back with an impetuous trade in ISF. Didn't wait for a buy signal. In retrospect my reason for buying was little better than 'Hey, I'm on a roll - what can possibly go wrong?' The only positive was I traded my stop-loss. Also holding FXJ from this morning's dump.