daytrades oct 18 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Australian shares fell back this morning as the dollar, oil and precious metals all eased after their recent strong runs.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 18 points or 0.4% at 4670 as the two big miners lost ground after abandoning their iron ore joint venture. BHP and Rio Tinto scrapped plans for a $117 billion joint venture in the Pilbara after failing to secure a green light from regulators.

In other company news, funds manager Perpetual rallied 23% after a takeover offer from U.S. private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, while Tabcorp was in a trading halt after announcing plans to split its casino operations from its wagering and gaming businesses.

The dollar continued to pull back from Friday night's brief brush with parity with the U.S. dollar, trading recently at 98.65 U.S. cents. The fall came as the U.S. dollar index, which ranks the greenback against a basket of currencies, started the week 0.26% stronger.

The rising U.S. dollar kept the pressure on oil and gold this morning. Crude futures eased 22 cents or 0.3% to $81.03 a barrel. The spot gold price slipped $9.40 to $1,359.50 an ounce.

Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.53%, Shanghai 1.03% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.27%. Dow futures were recently at -34.


An early warning for tonight in the Dow futures and rebounding U.S. dollar. Early days, of course. A solid start to the week here, with a nice reversal in VOR and a slender scalp in ALB. Also holding CWN from the low and looking for a partial recovery this arvo.