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

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A rebound in the big banks from one-month lows helped the ASX shrug off weakness in key commodities and a mixed bag of economic reports this morning.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 34 points or 0.7% ahead at 5033 and within reach of what would be only the index's second gain in two weeks. The local market has come under selling pressure since ANZ and WBC announced an increase in bad debts relating to the mining downturn. However, the financial sector led this morning's recovery, rising 1% fro0m Friday's four-week low. Also strong were utilities +1.9%, gold +1.4% and health +1.4%.

The energy sector lost 1.9% after US crude futures slipped 41 cents or 1.1% this morning to US$36.38 a barrel. Gold stocks rallied despite a drop of $3.70 or 0.3% in gold to US$1,219.80 an ounce. The metals & mining sector dropped 0.6% as copper slid 0.2% to US$2.16 an ounce.

Today's rally followed a positive end to the week in the US, where traders continued to bet that the Federal Reserve will be slow to raise rates this year despite signs that the economic recovery is gathering pace.

“[Fed Chair Janet] Yellen is exceptionally dovish,” Mark Matthews, head of Asia research at Bank Julius Baer in Singapore, told Bloomberg. “She’s probably going to let the recovery run hot for a while. This is all great for stocks.”

The dollar dropped a third of a cent to 76.42 US cents after February retail sales came in flat, offsetting improvements in building approvals and job ads.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.21%. China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were closed for public holidays.  Dow futures were recently down two points or 0.01%.


Solid morning, considering the pressure on commodities. Banks looked due for a relief rally. Trading: some promising movement to start the week. Watching MOD, AUZ, LIT and others. Traded SXY and a low-volume tiddler.