Australian stocks punched through 4600 this morning for the first time in 17 months as a regional index pushed towards its longest winning run in three years.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 22 points or 0.5% ahead at 4598 after earlier hitting a new 2012 high at 4603. The gains helped the MSCI Asia Pacific Index target a 10th straight positive close for the first time since July 2009.
Health was the pick of the sectors, rising 2.5% as CSL rallied 3.3%. The other leaders were IT +1.8%, energy +1.7% and the Small Ordinaries +1%.
Asian markets rallied as investors anticipated the launch of another round of quantitative easing in the US tonight. Shanghai put on 0.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.53% and Japan's Nikkei 0.52%. Dow futures were recently down five points or less than 0.1%.
"The Fed is expected to announce QE4, or effectively US$45 billion a month buying of US treasuries to replace its expiring Operation Twist," Cameron Peacock, market strategist at IG Markets, told Bloomberg. "In theory, there shouldn't be a huge reaction to news that the Fed is initiating this program given it has been speculated on for some time and should be priced in."
Some of the shine came off the rally in Australia as economic data disappointed. Consumer confidence sagged 4.1 points to 100 this month, reversing most of November's 5.2-point rise despite a rate cut. A separate report showed personal finance loans declined 0.9% in October.
Crude oil futures eased two cents this morning to US$85.87 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.70 softer at US$1,710.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0534.
This rally just keeps giving. The XJO has travelled due north for nearly a month now with barely a pause and is starting to look overdue for a pullback. Meanwhile the XSO hit a one-month high but remains nearly a hundred points off the October peak. Such conditions always leave me feeling like I should be doing better. Scored a nice bounce in BRU this morning. Then having lost money on OGX yesterday, I went back to prove that was no fluke. Scraped out of today's trade with enough profit for a Coke, but the market is telling me to look elsewhere if I want fries with that. Finally, the Kitchen Sink Continuous Disclosure award for 2012 goes to EGN for this announcement today. Profit downgrade: tick. Capital raising: tick. Takeover offer: tick. Does that cover everything?
