Thanks Endless. Also JayMarket and D59 from this morning - much appreciated.
Half-time round-up:
Australian shares ignored business gloom, soft US futures and negative Asian markets on their way to matching a 17-month high this morning.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 15 points or 0.3% stronger at 4572 after earlier nudging the 2012 17-month high of 4581 last visited on October 18. Resource stocks provided much of the momentum as market heavyweight BHP hit its highest point in seven months, helping the metals & mining sector to rally 1.1%. Other stand-outs included utilities +1.5% and the Small Ordinaries +0.4%. Iron ore producers are enjoying their best run in months after iron ore reached a five-month high yesterday.
"There has been considerable momentum behind the recent rally in both iron ore and copper prices," CMC Markets analyst Ric Spooner told Fairfax. "The iron ore index broke past recent highs yesterday to settle at $US123.40."
Sentiment elsewhere was less bullish, with business confidence sagging last month to a three-year low. Confidence slumped to -9 from -1 in October and conditions wallowed at -5 for a second month, according to a NAB survey.
Most Asian markets gave back some of yesterday's gains as US futures pointed to possible weakness tonight. Shanghai retreated 0.48%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was little changed at +0.02% and Japan's Nikkei lost 0.45%. Dow futures were recently down 31 points or more than 0.2%.
Crude oil futures gave up another 12 cents this morning to US$85.56 a barrel. Spot gold was $4.40 weaker at US$1,709.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0467.
A pretty impressive performance this morning considering the headwinds. The iron ore producers did the heavy lifting and appear to have room to mover higher if Wall Street plays nice. That said, a fade this afternoon would leave the index looking a bit "toppy". We could use a pullback in the next week to stir the pot and create more opportunities. I had a dull morning until the dump in NWE came along - traded it twice. Also scored a part-fill in SRI and a few OGX.
