daytrades may 16 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Shares sagged to an eight-week low this morning as a rising US dollar crimped commodity prices and pressured US equity futures.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 53 points or 1.1% at 4658, with the defensive telecoms sector the only sector to advance. Financials were the biggest weight on the market, falling 1.5% as WBC traded ex-dividend. Resource stocks also retreated, with energy shares down 1.4%, metals & mining 1.2% and gold stocks 1.2%.

US futures were pointing to a soft start to tonight's trade as the arrest of IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn raised question marks over the European Union's ability to deal with Greece's deteriorating debt situation in meetings commencing tonight, and President Obama warned that the US faced another financial crisis unless political rivals agreed to raise the nation's debt ceiling. Dow futures were recently at -38.

Japan's Nikkei declined 0.63% in morning trade, Shanghai 0.09% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.03%.

The US dollar index rallied 0.11% this morning as the euro came under selling pressure. The Australian dollar was 0.1% weaker, buying US $1.0561.

Oil dropped as risk appetite was undermined by uncertainty over Greece's future. Crude futures slumped 80 cents or 0.85% this morning to US $98.82 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.70 weaker at US $1,491.50 an ounce.

In domestic economic news, home loans declined in March for a third straight month. Home loans eased 1.5%, following February's 4.7% fall, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. A separate report showed sales of new motor vehicles fell 3.5% last month.



All the talk of pending holidays on the thread this morning reminded me that in a moment of insanity I agreed to send my wife to Ibiza next month for a wedding while I stay home to look after the kids and earn the coin to pay for the trip. Any lawyers on the thread? Are drunken verbal contracts enforceable? Is stupidity a valid defence? Fortunately, this morning delivered a few trading opportunities to cover the bills. Snagged scalps/bounces in WHC, AGE, CQT, CLO and VLA. Nice start to the week.