Daytrading August 15 afternoon

Thanks Oscar, Jim and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Positive leads from US equity futures and crude oil helped the ASX reverse early losses to reach the halfway mark narrowly ahead.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 13 points or 0.2% higher at 5544 after earlier dipping as low as 5511. The rally was led by telecoms +1%, financials +0.6% and consumer discretionary +0.4%, countering declines in gold stocks -2.7%, metals & mining -2.4% and industrials -0.2%.

A strong start to the trading week in crude oil boosted US futures. West Texas Intermediate crude was last up 42 cents or 0.94% at US$44.91 a barrel. Dow futures were up 34 points or 0.18% and S&P 500 futures three points or 0.14%.

China's Shanghai Composite kicked ahead 1.45% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.47%. Japan's Nikkei was at break-even following weak second-quarter GDP data.

“The road ahead may be bumpy but Asian equities ex-Japan are relatively undervalued, under owned and under appreciated,” Vasu Menon, vice-president for wealth management research at Oversea-Chinese Banking in Singapore,  told Bloomberg. “It could do better than other regions over the next few years once we see greater stability in China and greater clarity with Fed policy.”

Gold futures were 80 cents or 0.06% stronger at US$1,344 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.5 US cents.


To hell with trading, it's been a great morning of sport. Bolt made it look effortless, Murray was pushed all the way and van Niekerk was extraordinary in the men's 400m. Turning into a memorable Games. Trading: solid morning, with tickets clipped in ERL, HNR and GXY.