daytrading april 23 afternoon

Thanks Cornelius.

Half-time round-up:

The share market has shrugged off mildly disappointing Chinese factory data this morning en route to its highest level since 2008.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 34 points or 0.6% higher at 5514 after earlier touching 5521, a level last visited in June 2008. A broad rally boosted every sector, led by gold +2.4%, I.T. +2.2%, consumer discretionary +0.9% and financials +0.8%.

The market came off its high after data showed a contraction in Chinese manufacturing eased this month but not by quite as much as economists hoped. HSBC's preliminary PMI rose to 48.3 from a final reading of 48 last month, just below economists' 48.4 consensus level.

"Domestic demand showed mild improvement, and deflationary pressures eased, but downside risks to growth are still evident as both new export orders and employment contracted," HSBC chief China economist Hongbin Qu told MarketWatch.

The Chinese report added to pressure on the dollar after a report showed inflation over the first three months was weaker than expected, undermining the argument for interest rate rises later this year. Headline consumer inflation increased 0.6% to an annual rate of 2.9%. Economists had tipped a 0.8% quarterly increase and annual growth of 3.2%. The dollar was lately buying 93.11 US cents, down nearly two-thirds of a cent.

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.17% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.54%. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.56%. Dow futures were recently up six points or less than 0.1%.

Spot gold firmed $2.80 this morning to US$1,283.90 an ounce. Crude oil futures were at US$101.69 a barrel.



There were a few opportunities in the bargain bins this morning. I had a good rummage and came up with profitable trades in QRX and SOI. Felt pretty good about my QRX exit on the first bounce but subsequent events cured me of that, lol. Still, they were two good trades to make up for a premature and unnecessary exit from FAR for a loss this morning.