Thanks Oscar, the ever-reliable Jim and ever-upbeat Trees....

Thanks Oscar, the ever-reliable Jim and ever-upbeat Trees.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares rallied for the first time in three sessions before paring gains as Asian markets traded mixed and the big banks gave up early advances.   

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 20 points or 0.4% ahead at 5486 after earlier running as high as 5509. The financial sector reached the halfway mark flat slightly ahead after pushing much higher in the first half hour of trade. Gold -1.6% and health -0.9% were the biggest drags. Energy +2.1% and metals & mining +1.2% offered the best returns.

Asian markets traded mixed despite positive overnight leads from Wall Street and crude oil, plus the prospect of a rate cut tonight in the UK. China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.52%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.33% and Japan's Nikkei lost 0.39%. Dow futures were recently up five points or 0.03%.

"The theme remains dominant in markets that monetary policy has effectively done as much as it can and that reflation, if required, should come via other means,” Sharon Zollner, senior economist at ANZ Bank of New Zealand, told Bloomberg. “The reality is that interest rates remain at record-low levels and, in an environment of moderate growth and low inflation, that is supportive of higher-yielding assets and Asia-Pacific markets should continue to benefit, as long as the growth picture holds together.”

Crude oil futures extended overnight gains with another 28 cents or 0.69% this morning to US$41.11 a barrel. Gold futures were off $4.90 or 0.36% at US$1,359.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.19 US cents.


Market feels a bit short of ideas at present. US rates worries on the backburner, the latest downswing in crude barely raised an eyebrow, Brexit was a non-event. Even central bank stimulus announcements are greeted with shrugs and 'Meh's. Back home, lithium announcements no longer seem to be a golden ticket and most of the tech flyers have lost serious altitude. Personally, I find these conditions challenging - I'll take mad panic over drift any day. Trading: scraped bounce profits out of MOX and LPI. Still holding OSL. Got out of NEC for peanuts.