daytrades march 2 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

A weak lead from Wall Street overshadowed an accelerating economy and improving house sales as shares slumped to a one-month low this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 30 points or 0.64% weaker at 4795, with all sectors trading lower except gold and telecoms. Consumer stocks were among the weakest sectors following an earnings downgrade from wholesaler Metcash.

Regional markets fell back as oil consolidated above US$100 a barrel this morning. Crude oil futures were recently up another 20 cents this morning at $100.27 a barrel. Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.66%, Shanghai 0.15% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.21%. Dow futures were recently at -3.

"This is all directly related to what's happening in the Middle East," Burrell & Co dealer Daniel Manley told Fairfax. "If this is going to drag out for a little while, or the US has to put in forces, that could push the oil price up for longer. We have come through a pretty good reporting season, with record results at the big end of town. But the worry now is this contagion could spread around North Africa."

The morning's domestic news was mostly positive. The economy grew at a rate of 0.7% last quarter, accelerating from a revised 0.1% rate for the September quarter and in line with economists' expectations.

"This is pretty much what the RBA has been expecting," RBC Capital Markets economist Michael Turner told Fairfax. "Almost on the nose."

New home sales recorded their first improvement in three months in January. The HIA-JELD-WEN new home sales index rose 2.5% in January following a 0.6% drop the previous month.

Spot gold was $4.50 weaker at $1,430.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0128.


Interesting to see how much heat there is in the spec end of the market despite warning signs elsewhere. The Small Ords fared better than the blue chips this morning. A sign of complacency or vote of confidence? The overall market didn't fall quite as hard at the open as the futures suggested, which left me with fewer buys than hoped. Had quick early wins with bounces in SSC and VOR but it's been slow since then. Fancied PRY to survive this morning's test of the old support but I'm underwater at present.