daytrades september 2 afternoon

Thanks PJ. Get well, Tweets.Half-time round-up:

Regional markets chased Wall Street higher this morning but a surprise fall in exports took some of the shine off the local rally.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 33 points or 0.75% at 4529 after earlier hitting a three-and-a-half week high at 4552. All sectors bar gold were trading higher, with property trusts +1.1%, consumer discretionary +1.1% and financials shares +1% leading the gains.

However, market enthusiasm after yesterday's strong GDP growth was tempered by an unexpectedly large fall in the trade surplus last month. The surplus slumped from $3.44 billion in June to $1.89 billion in July, well short of expectations for a $3.1 billion surplus. Exports eased 4%, while imports increased 2%.

Economists attributed the fall to a deterioration in iron ore and coal exports to China. "It was very disappointing," ANZ economist Riki Polygenis told Fairfax. "The trade balance is now half what it was in June. It was largely driven by a fall in resource exports, particularly in coal and iron ore."

Asian markets followed the strong overnight lead from the U.S. Japan's Nikkei rallied 1.22%, Shanghai 0.93% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.41%. Dow futures were recently at -21.

Oil and gold moved in opposite directions this morning.
Crude oil futures eased 20 cents to $73.80 a barrel, while the spot gold price recovered $1.40 to $1,245.60 an ounce. The Aussie dollar was buying 90.7 U.S. cents.


As always on big "up" days, the opening prices in the shares I wanted were too rich this morning but I'm keeping an eye on the likes of OST, BSL, MGX and FMG for entry points. CXY provided a quick day's wage but a little patience could have turned it into a week's income. Only other trade today was a small dabble in MMR on pullback. Thanks again to all the well-wishers this morning - it's the good-will here that makes the daily toil worthwhile.