Thanks Brit and morning crew. Half-time round-up: A rebound in...

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A rebound in crude oil and gains in select defensive sectors helped limit losses on the ASX at the halfway mark despite weakness in the US and Europe overnight.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 21 points or 0.4% weaker at 5215 and threatening a second straight decline. Falls in metals & mining -2%, materials -1.8%, energy -1.2% and health -0.6% were partly offset by gains in gold +0.25%, utilities +0.2% and consumer staples +0.4%.

Worries that a recent rebound in commodities is running out of steam were temporarily salved by a recovery in crude oil this morning. West Texas Intermediate crude futures bounced 40 cents or 0.94% to US$43.04 a barrel.

Institutional investors are expecting to tread carefully this week ahead of central bank meetings in the US and Japan on Thursday.

“Markets will remain myopically focused on Thursday’s central bank extravaganza, with flows pushing us around until that point,” Mark Smith, senior economist at ANZ Bank New Zealand, told Bloomberg. “The Fed will choose its words carefully and has proven reasonably adept of late at keeping the market on an even keel despite tricky policy trade-offs.”

Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.05%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.58 % and Japan's Nikkei lost 1.27%. Dow futures were recently off three points or 0.02%.

Gold futures were 50 cents or 0.04% stronger at US$1,240.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.23 US cents.


A promising rebound this morning seems to be giving way to more selling. A retrace seems likeliest from this level on the index in the days ahead. Be nice to see a higher low to continue the recent bottoming/reversal trend. Trading: wild first hour in the likes of GXY and GMM paid off well - six trades altogether for 4 wins, 2 minor losses. Also traded BLG. Nice start to the shortened week.