Regional equity markets, US futures and precious metals all rallied this morning, driving local shares higher for a second day.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 14 points or 0.3% at 4698 as gains in cyclical stocks overshadowed modest losses among health stocks and industrials. Small caps continued to under-perform blue chips, with the Small Ordinaries' rise of 0.2% trailling a 0.4% gain in the ASX 20.
Asian markets shrugged off the weak overnight lead from Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei put on 0.88% in morning trade, Shanghai 0.27% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.48%. Dow futures were pointing to a positive start to tonight's trade, up 46 points or 0.4% as shares in Dell traded more than 6% higher following its Q1 earnings report, delivered after the major US exchanges closed this morning.
Continuing weakness in the US dollar helped precious metals improve this morning. Spot gold rallied $5.10 to US $1,491.30 an ounce. Spot silver improved 28 cents to US $34.20. Crude oil futures were three cents weaker at US $97.72 a barrel. The dollar was buying US $1.0629.
A slowdown in wage growth eased pressure on the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates. Wage growth slowed from 1% at the end of last year to 0.8% during the first quarter, according to an ABS index. The RBA identified rising wages as a concern in the minutes of its May meeting.
Consumer confidence slipped to an 11-month low this month. The WBC-MI index of consumer sentiment dropped 1.3% to 103.9 from 105.3 last month.
"This is a modest adjustment to the index but the result is still sending a subdued message about the state of the consumer today," Westpac chief economist Bill Evans told Fairfax. "This is the lowest level of the index since June 2010, a month which followed three consecutive rate hikes by the Reserve Bank."
More positive omens in the market, which makes it all the more frustrating that I've been trade repellent all morning. Been increasing my position size recently and have apparently reached a level where my placing a buy order below the asking price is a reversal signal for everyone else. Haven't been able to buy a damn thing all morning, lol.
