daytrading afternoon mar 3

Thanks gttrain,

Our market opened weaker this morning and plummeted down to XAO 5355.20 before bouncing to it's current level at XAO 5375.6 or -0.73% at 12.21 AEDT, as the geopolitical crisis in the Ukraine escalates. The Ukraine is on the brink of war with Russia threatening to invade in a crisis that began three months ago with civilian protests against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych.

The deepening crisis has scared investors away from riskier assets, including equities and risk currencies, IG Markets market strategist Evan Lucas said.

"The US futures plummeted at 10am (AEDT); the Dow was down about 112 points and the S&P wasn't far behind.

"This is certainly linked to what's happening in the Ukraine. The currency market and equities are reacting to the situation as risk is coming off."

He said 47,000 contracts had been traded in US futures around 1030 AEDT, when normally it's about 3500.

"That's a huge amount of volume and it's in reaction to what's happening in the Ukraine," he said.

"It's going to be a very, very geopolitically-motivated day."

Among the major banks, Commonwealth Bank has lost 0.62% at $74.21, while National Australia Bank is down 0.69% at $34.47, Westpac lost 0.57% to $33.31 and ANZ dropped 0.84% to $31.86.

In the resources sector, BHP Billiton was 2.89% lower at $37.27, Rio Tinto had fallen 1.23% to $66.00, and Fortescue Metals had shed 1% to $5.38.

The Reserve Bank is expected to leave the cash rate on hold on tomorrow, despite concerns about weakness in the domestic economy and bigger problems ahead for the Australian labour market.

KEY FACTS

* At 12.29 AEDT on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 43.9 points, or negative 0.81 per cent, at 5,360.8 points.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 38.1 points, or 0.71 per cent, at 5,377.3 points.

* The March share price index futures contract was down 20 points at 5,376 points, with 9,071 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 41 million securities worth $397 million.

* Nikkei is currently down 2.28%

* Hang seng is flat at plus 0.04%

* Dow futures currently down 119 points

Good luck to all and many thanks for all the encouragement and support over the last 3 sessions. Looking forward to saying gooood morning to highlandlad tomorrow morning!