daytrading april 8 afternoon

Thanks Endless. Good to have you back on board. Quirky that you turn up as HotCopper reverts to the old layout. Like last week never happened.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares surrendered most of their early gains by lunchtime as a heavy week of economic data began on a downbeat note and US futures drifted into the red.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was eight points or 0.2% ahead at 4900 as declines in industrials and telecoms helped pull the index off an early high of 4914. Gold was the pick of the sectors, rising 2.2%, ahead of metals & mining +1.1% and consumer discretionary +0.9%.

The week's domestic economic menu began with declines in building activity and jobs. The AIG-HIA performance of construction index slipped 6.6 points to 39 in March, erasing February's gains. Job advertising declined 1.5% last month but remained above last year's levels.

US futures were mildly negative ahead of the unofficial launch of the Q1 earnings season tonight. Dow Emini futures were recently off 13 points or 0.1%.

Asian markets were mixed as Japanese stocks continued to benefit from the Bank of Japan's stimulus program. The Nikkei charged another 2.01%, while Shanghai dipped 0.11% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.3%.

Crude oil futures retreated 25 cents this morning to US$92.80 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.70 weaker at US$1,578.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0376.


Not many fireworks this morning, but "slow and boring" looks all right after last week's rout at the spec end. I squeezed a few pips out of QAN and COK. Struggling with flu and short on brain-power today.