daytrades september 14 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Gains in the big miners steered local share indexes to fresh four-month highs this morning as business confidence bounced back.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 22 points or 0.5% at 4637, led by metals & mining +1.1%, materials +1.1%, gold +0.9% and energy +0.9%. Defensive sectors were mostly negative in another sign that the local appetite for risk is picking up.

"Commodities prices have been extremely firm, copper is back towards $US3.50 and that flows through to our markets," Burrell & Co dealer Peter Wright told Fairfax. "Spot iron ore has also recovered from the dip it had."

Business confidence recovered last month to its highest level since the European debt crisis spooked world markets. The NAB business confidence index rose sharply from 2 in July to 11 in August. However, business conditions were unchanged as consumer demand remained subdued.

Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.23% in morning trade, Shanghai was recently off 0.05% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.19%. Dow futures were recently at -7.

Gold kicked higher this morning. The spot price was recently up $4.10 at $1,249.40 an ounce. Crude oil futures inched 2 cents higher to $77.21 a barrel. The Aussie dollar was buying 93.37 U.S. cents.


Trading can be a cruel game and I copped it sweet this morning. Liked the opening price in IAU and rode it for a few points until it stalled. Looked again half an hour later and it was up 20% after an announcement. Ouch. Selling NTU yesterday doesn't seem that smart today, either... Also picked VIL for a bounce trade. So far, so hmmmm. All trading wounds are self-inflicted of course, and full responsibility is accepted for all these faulty decisions. Still, full-time parenting suddenly doesn't seem so bad after all, lol.