A rally in the big banks ahead of their profit reporting season helped the share market shrug off soft overseas leads, rising for the fifth time in six sessions.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 23 points or 0.5% stronger at 5121 and on track for its highest close in a month and a half. A soft morning for resource stocks was offset by gains in financials +0.9%, industrials +0.3% and defensive sectors including health +1.2%, telecoms +0.5% and consumer staples +0.4%. ANZ is due to launch the bank reporting season tomorrow. Read more here.
US futures were stuck in neutral with most Asian markets closed for public holidays today. Dow futures were recently up four points or less than 0.1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng recently gave up shallow early gains to trade 0.04% in the red. Markets in China and Japan were closed.
Spot gold continued to recover this morning, rising $6.40 to US$1,468.60 an ounce. Crude oil futures drifted two cents to US$92.76 a barrel. The dollar was buying $US1.0308.
Glimmers of life at the spec end this morning. Good to see NEA and BGS moving with a bit of volume, even if I wasn't aboard. The goldies were back under the cosh, despite a solid morning in the price of the metal. I caught a part-fill in PRU near the low but not enough for a decent return. Also took IFM as it reached/neared the buy zone, but to no gain as yet.
