Daytrading April 21 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

The share market rebounded this morning before paring gains following a Reserve Bank rates policy update.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 25 points or 0.4% ahead at 5858  but below the morning high of 5888 set before the 11.30am EST release of the April RBA meeting minutes. The dollar dropped around a third of a cent as the central bank reaffirmed its easing bias, lately buying 76.91 US cents.

"The Board judged that it was appropriate to hold interest rates steady for the time being, while accepting that further easing of policy may be appropriate over the period ahead to foster sustainable growth in demand and inflation consistent with the target," the minutes said. "The Board would continue to assess the case for such action at forthcoming meetings."

The metals & mining sector led the market recovery from two days of steady selling, rising 1.6%. Also strong were IT +2.4%, materials +1.4% and consumer discretionary +0.8%. The financials sector gained 0.4%.

China's Shanghai Composite was almost unchanged, lately up 0.01%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.72% and Japan's Nikkei 0.9%. Dow futures were ahead by 27 points or 0.15%.

Crude oil futures eased 11 cents this morning to US$56.27 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.80 firmer at US$1,195.50 an ounce.


Not a lot of conviction behind this XJO bounce. Looks a lot like there's a suspicion it was merely technical, so further weakness lies ahead. Hope not. Be a damn shame when this bull market in specs finally ends. Trading: took me an age to find a trade and then the plunge in NRT came. Got in below 30c but hasn't amounted to anything yet. Willing to give it a few weeks if necessary. The downside of buying NRT is then having to wade through the threads. Sad face. Got half a pip out of the pullback in PXS. ANN is coming good from Friday - barring international catastrophe, happy to hold for another couple of days.