daytrading april 10 afternoon

Thanks Trees.

Half-time round-up:

Shares rallied to five-and-a-half-year highs before paring gains as a slump in Chinese trade offset an unexpected rise in Australian employment.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 19 points or 0.35% higher at 5483 after earlier breaking above the 5500 mark for the first time since June 2008. Property trusts +1.6% was the pick of the sectors, followed by gold +1.2% and consumer staples +0.9%.

The metals & mining sector fell into the red, lately trading 0.8% lower, following the release of Chinese trade data that showed sharp falls in both imports and exports. Imports last month were 11.3% weaker than a year earlier and exports were down 6.6%. The trade balance moved back into surplus, with a balance of US$7.71 billion.

Earlier, the dollar surged to a five-month peak at 94.36 US cents after the unemployment rate dropped to 5.8% last month from 6% in February on a net gain of 18,100 jobs. The economy added 40,200 part-time jobs during the month, offsetting the loss of 22,100 full-time positions. Economists had anticipated a rise in the jobless rate to 6.1%. The dollar was lately buying 94.15 US cents.

"I think the turnaround in hiring is consistent with the improvement we've seen in the business surveys and the jobs ads," Barclays chief economist for Australia Kieran Davies told Fairfax. "Companies were reluctant to take on people last year but they are feeling more positive about hiring this year."

Asian markets were higher despite the Chinese news. China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.07%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.33% and Japan's Nikkei 0.68%. Dow futures were recently down eight points or less than 0.1%.

Spot gold improved $2 this morning to US$1,314.80 an ounce. Crude oil futures retreated 13 cents to US$103.26 a barrel.


A Chinese spanner in the works dulled the morning rally, but the market seems to be in forgiving mood. In darker times the market would have sold off much harder on that sort of data. Low-key morning for me. Got on-board NEN on the first pullback for a nice recovery bounce. Just missed NEA at 42c.