Thanks Tweets. Big thumbs up from me and at least 90 others,...

Thanks Tweets. Big thumbs up from me and at least 90 others, lol. Half-time round-up:

Australian shares are on track to finished modestly higher for the week despite a pullback this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 19 points or 0.4% at 4665 but hovering above last Friday's close of 4648. All sectors bar financials and gold eased this morning as traders took a cautious approach ahead of an exceptionally busy line-up of market-moving news next week.

"Next week's going to be a crucial week - you've got the US mid-term elections, the FOMC meeting and you've also got the RBA's rates decision on Tuesday, so nothing much is really going to happen over these next couple of days," IG Markets markets analyst Cameron Peacock told Fairfax. "The market is just sort of bouncing around, waiting for a definitive lead from some of those important events."

In economic news, sales of new homes improved for the first month in five during September but were 14% lower for the quarter. Sales rose 0.6% last month, following a 2.6% fall in August, according to an HIA/Jeld-Wen report.

"Heightened speculation about increased interest rates has been damaging to housing sentiment and activity," HIA chief economist Dr Harley Dale told Fairfax. "Warnings from the banks of pending increases in mortgage rates outside of changes in monetary policy have been unhelpful to buyer confidence and are causing potential buyers to stay on the side-lines."

Asian markets retreated. Japan's Nikkei slumped 1.62%, Shanghai 0.34% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.14%. Dow futures were recently at a mildly bearish -34.

Oil and gold moderated this morning. Crude oil futures eased 8 cents to $81.86 a barrel. The spot gold price was $2.90 lower at $1,340.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 97.64 U.S. cents.


Looks like falls in Asia are dragging down U.S. futures. Next week could be volatile. Been a morning of low achievement here. Skimmed a few points off IAG from the low but began buying PAN way too early and need a recovery from here to turn a profit. Added a few PIO at 3.5. Well done to Young Trader with his SSC call yesterday.