daytrades nov 24 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Australian shares rebounded from a 10-week low this morning, helped by rising U.S. futures and a partial recovery across regional markets.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 9 points or 0.2% at 4580, but well off the morning low of 4551. Traditional defensives gold, telecoms and health led the sector rises, but mining stocks reversed early losses to turn positive by 1 pm.

"The risk trade is definitely off today, as investors are looking for cover elsewhere on the market," CMC Markets market Analyst, David Taylor, told Fairfax. "We are not really seeing any buying enthusiasm in the market because of the risks priced into the market overnight.

"We know the Irish debt situation is very volatile and investors are concerned about that spreading through the rest of Europe. We have Chinese concerns about them raising rates and, in the Fed minutes, they are quite concerned about the ramifications of QE2."

U.S. futures improved as the morning wore on and Japan's Nikkei trimmed its losses. Dow futures were recently at +45 or +0.4%. The Nikkei was off 0.77% following yesterday's public holiday after earlier falling as low as 1.9%. South Korea's Kospi also fell 1.9% in early trade. Shanghai was up 1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 1%.

In local economic news, construction work unexpectedly contracted last quarter, according to ABS statistics released this morning. Construction fell a seasonally-adjusted 2.1%, against expectations for a rise of 2.5%.

Crude oil futures rallied 26 cents this morning to $81.73 a barrel. The spot gold price added 20 cents at $1,376.20 an ounce. The dollar recovered more than three-quarters of a cent, recently buying 98 U.S. cents.


A heartening recovery on the local market this morning. It pretty much has to hold around these levels or we could be going a lot lower. A smooth morning's trade here, marred by taking profits too soon. Nice bounce scalps opened shortly after the open in CDU, AGO, GRY, NXS and TTY. Also had a small dip in ENR later in the morning. Currently empty-handed but there's enough strength in the market for me to wish that wasn't so, lol.