Welcome back Brit. Thanks morning crew. Half-time round-up: A...

Welcome back Brit. Thanks morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A second day of gains pushed the ASX to a seven-session high following news of a rebound in Chinese exports.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 64 points or 1.3% higher at 5039 and within reach of its highest close of the month. Leading the charge were the metals & mining sector +3.2%, energy +3%, materials +2.7% and IT +1.7%.

The rally came amid overnight gains in commodities, including crude oil's highest close of the year and a near 5% surge in iron ore. The index extended gains after trade data suggested the Chinese economy gathered pace last month. Read more here.

“The key release in the Asian session will be China’s trade data,” Angus Nicholson, markets analyst at IG, told Bloomberg. “Given the big moves in commodities, some fundamental evidence showing that Chinese imports have picked up alongside their first-quarter fiscal stimulus should help provide some support to the recent gains we have seen.”

China's Shanghai Composite surged 2.11%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 2.07% and Japan's Nikkei 2.61%. Dow futures were recently ahead 40 points or 0.23%.

Crude oil futures retreated 33 cents or 0.8% this morning to US$41.84 a barrel. Gold futures were $6.30 or 0.5% weaker at US$1,254.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.01 US cents.


Positive Chinese data helping Asian markets and US futures. Mood on global markets certainly seems to be improving. Be nice if some of that bullishness rubbed off here. We're still stuck in a downtrend. Trading: spent a satisfying morning jabbing for pips. Wins in PLS twice, CDC and AJM.