Daytrading August 8 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A record close on Wall Street helped push Australian shares higher for a third session at the start of a big week of corporate earnings.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 51 points or 0.9% higher at 5549 as a well-received profit report from Bendigo Bank contributed to a 1.7% surge in the financial sector. CBA reports later this week, along with TLS, FXJ, TCL, REA and COH. Also strong this morning were the energy sector +1.5%, IT +0.9% and industrials +0.8%. The gold sector was the biggest drag, tumbling 4.8% after an unexpectedly strong US jobs report fuelled a move away from havens into risk assets on Friday.

"The strong lead from Wall Street should support the ASX 200, which has found good support off the 20-day moving average," IG strategist Chris Weston told Fairfax. "With full-year earnings front and centre this week, investors will be paying somewhat less of a focus on global developments and putting more emphasis on the investment landscape for Australia corporates, with names like Cochlear, Transurban, CBA, Fairfax Media and Telstra at the epi-centre."
  
China's Shanghai Composite rallied 0.22%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.18% and Japan's Nikkei 1.96%. Dow futures were recently ahead 25 points or 0.14%.

Crude oil futures improved nine cents or 0.42% this morning to US$41.89 a barrel. Gold futures were $1.80 or 0.13% softer at US$1,342.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.11 US cents.


Prepare for a few hurried and halfbaked halftime reports this week - I'll admit I have one on the market, the other on the Olympics. Go Australia. Trading: VML and BD1 paying today's wage.