daytrades oct 4 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

The share market kicked higher this morning for the first time in four sessions as rising inflation increased the odds on a rate rise tomorrow.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 59 points or 1.3% at 4638 as a broad rally lifted all sectors. The big banks were all up more than 1.5% as the financial sector headed the risers. Also strongly up were IT +1.7% and gold +1.4%.

The odds on the Reserve Bank lifting the cash rate tomorrow rose to 60% as a reading on inflation stayed above the central bank's 1-3% target level. The TDS/MI Monthly Inflation Gauge rose 0.1% last month for a 12-month rise of 3.2%.

"Ongoing hawkish rhetoric from senior RBA staff members has placed the markets on notice, and so we believe the RBA should follow up the rhetoric with a 25 basis point tightening after tomorrow's Board meeting, and then start its Christmas vacation early," TD Securities senior strategist Annette Beacher said in a statement quoted on Fairfax.

The dollar has been benefitting from speculation about a rate rise, hitting 97.5 U.S. cents on Friday night and trading recently around 96.92 cents.

Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.9% this morning and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.8%. Shanghai was closed for the first day of a four-day public holiday. Dow futures were recently at +2.

The spot gold price was $3.60 weaker at $1,315 an ounce as the U.S. dollar index rallied 0.2%. Crude oil futures eased 2 cents this morning to $81.56 a barrel.


The big banks are on fire this morning - any would have made a decent trade. A pretty ordinary morning here was rescued by that dump in KRL - entry at 8.8 delivered a very nice start to the week. Pity I wasn't more aggressive. AVO continues to provide nice intraday swings and I'm break-even in PDN and hoping for another run at the intraday high.