Thanks Endless and also Ramallah for the kind words earlier.
Half-time round-up:
Australian shares are on track for a second day of gains as bullish US futures helped offset a mixed morning for commodities and Asian share markets.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead by 14 points or 0.3% at 4945 led by gains in consumer discretionary +0.8%, utilities and health +0.7%, materials +0.4% and financials +0.3%. The only sectors left behind by a broad rally were property trusts -0.6%, consumer staples -0.4% and IT -01.%.
Japanese shares neared a five-year high this morning, but China' major index was capped by the impact of an earthquake in Sichuan province over the weekend. The Shanghai Composite dipped 0.34%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was little changed at +0.01% and Japan's Nikkei surged 1.98%. Dow futures were recently up 60 points or 0.4% following the capture of a second suspect in the Boston marathon bombing.
Copper extended last week's losses this morning, but oil and gold improved. Copper for May delivery was lately down 0.5% or nearly two cents at US$3.13 a pound. Spot gold bounced $15.20 to US$1,422.20 an ounce. Crude oil futures rallied 45 cents to US$88.45 a barrel. The dollar was buying $US1.0305.
There were hints of life in the spec market this morning, but few of the risers seem to have gone on with it. Too many burnt fingers over the last month. Not sure why US futures are quite so ebullient - post-terrorist patriotism up to a point but maybe something out of the weekend G20 meet? I struggled to find trades this morning, but reach the halfway point with speculators in possible oversolds TGS, NEA and GUF.
