daytrading april 24 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares staged their biggest rally in two weeks after tame inflation data heightened the case for more rate cuts and Asian markets rebounded from yesterday's falls.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 71 points or 1.4% higher at 5087 after earlier hitting 5093, the index's strongest point since March 18. Financials and consumer discretionary stocks were among the leaders, rising 2% and 1.1% respectively as traders bet that weak consumer inflation will encourage the Reserve Bank to lower the cash rate, perhaps as early as next month. The consumer price index edged up 0.4% last quarter for an annual rate of 2.5%. Economists had expected rates of 0.7% for the quarter and 2.8% for the year. The dollar dropped roughly a quarter of a cent against the greenback, lately buying US$1.0238 as forex traders factored in the possibility of more rate cuts.

"It was quite surprising because [the first quarter] is generally a quarter of strong seasonal price increases," Citi senior economist Joshua Williamson told Fairfax. "There was fairly wide weaker results than expected across the board for most of the important indicators."

US futures drifted back to neutral after the initial euphoria over an increased dividend and share buy-back from Apple announced this morning wore off. Dow futures were recently down one point or less than 0.1%. Apple shares were down 0.54% after earlier spiking more than 5% in after-market action following this morning's profit report.

Asian markets pared yesterday's losses. Shanghai bounced 0.11%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.9% and Japan's Nikkei 1.29%.

Crude oil futures eased 17 cents to US$89.26 a barrel. Gold for June delivery was $9.80 stronger at US$1,422.30 an ounce.


Can't keep this market down. Four rises in a row and a 1% jump heading into a public holiday? That's either bravado or extremely bullish. We'll take it either way. I was on the same page as a few here this morning. Bet that SLR would hold above $1. Squeezed a pip out of PXS. Von, apologies for not responding to your query about MBN earlier - I did hold overnight but planned to sell into any bounce and therefore didn't want to spruik it before the open. Best trade of the morning was the jag in ROC, another that looked overdone. Hasn't been a great week but it keeps the trading account ticking over while the spec end slumbers.