daytrades may 10 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Shares turned lower this morning as commodity prices trimmed overnight gains and a profit downgrade from OneSteel underlined concerns about the strength of the dollar.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 14 points or 0.3% at 4743. with all sectors trading lower except telecoms, up 1%. The big banks were the biggest weight on the market ahead of tonight's Federal Budget, dragging the financial sector down 0.6%. The materials sector was 0.1% weaker after OneSteel lowered its earnings guidance, blaming the strong dollar and bad weather.

"People are on the sidelines leading into the budget this evening," Richard Herring, director of equities at Burrell Stockbroking, told Fairfax. "The banking sector's turned around after a more positive open... that's where the main drag on the market is coming from at this stage."

US futures drifted lower during a mixed morning on Asian markets. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.24%, while Shanghai added 0.16%. Dow futures were recently at -11.

Oil dropped sharply this morning in electronic trade following news of a rise in margin requirements for traders. Crude for June delivery was recently $1.99 lower than at 7.15 am EST at $100.96 a barrel. CME Group this morning raised the margin requirements for a range of oil contracts. Similar moves were blamed for last week's 27% plunge in the price of silver. Spot silver eased 23 cents this morning to US $37.60 an ounce. Spot gold was $3.80 weaker at US $1509.60 an ounce.

The dollar briefly jumped this morning after new figures showed a trade surplus more than three times the size that economists expected. The surplus in March rose to $1.74 billion from a deficit of $87 million in February as the economy recovered from the Queensland floods. The dollar spiked 20 points in response but soon eased to trade recently at US$1.0787.


A nervy morning but it's good to see the Small Ords outperform the blue chips (unchanged vs -0.3%). That suggests a modest increase in risk appetite. Couldn't find many screaming buys this morning. Traded MOC poorly for a paltry profit and had a tiddler scalp in YRR. Added some BLD in the low 4.60s for a bounce and locked in some profit in my silver ETF trade, purely because the big moves tend to happen overnight. Will let the rest run - hopefully there's a lot more in it.