daytrades nov 9 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Regional markets retreated this morning as U.S. futures and commodity prices eased before a rising U.S. dollar.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 21 points or 0.45% lower at 4757 following falls among the big miners and most of the banks. Also weighing on the market was a 5%+ fall in WPL after Shell sold part of its holding in the country's biggest oil and gas producer.

Market commentators said some of today's weakness could be attributed to institutional investors selling other holdings to buy a share of Shell's WPL stake.

"The market has to finance $3.3 billion worth of stock and it will be mostly out of the resource sector that they have to pay for that placement," Bell Financial Group senior adviser Chris Kimber told Fairfax. "If you're a fund and you've all of a sudden got an extra $100 million of stock in Woodside that you have to pay for, then quite often they have to sell other major stocks on the sector to take that up."

In economic news, business conditions are at their weakest since July last year, according to a NAB survey. The NAB business conditions index dropped to 2 last month from 7 in September. The long-term average is 6. Profitability fell into negative territory for the first time in two years.

U.S. futures deteriorated this morning as the U.S. dollar continued its overnight rebound and bond insurer Ambac filed for bankruptcy. Dow futures were recently at -23. The U.S. dollar index was up another 0.2% at 77.15. The Australian dollar was buying 1.0133 U.S. cents.

Crude oil futures slid 24 cents this morning to $86.68 a barrel. The spot gold price was $5 weaker at $1,404.30 an ounce.

Asian markets retreated. Japan's Nikkei was off 0.38%, Shanghai 0.66% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.42%.


A couple of early gifts this morning in the plunges in WPL and ABC. Rode the initial recoveries in both for a very good day's wage. Starting to accumulate LYC and MMX for reversals. The volumes say they're about ready to bounce, although MMX may have further to fall. VHL is hinting at breaking out but volume is pitiful so far - took small position yesterday.