Thanks Endless. Also Trees and RWE from this morning.
Half-time round-up:
Shares hovered near a 17-month high this morning as gains on most Asian markets failed to offset caution following a soft finish on Wall Street overnight.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was three points or less than 0.1% ahead at 4587 as the index struggled to secure a fifth day of gains. Consumer discretionary stocks +1% were the pick of a motley set of rising sectors that included utilities +0.6%, property trusts +0.5% and industrials +0.4%.
The index was stuck in a narrow 15-point trading range after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the Fed lacks the tools to protect the US economy if a US$607 billion package of tax hikes and spending cuts goes through on January 1.
"Wall Street didn't like Ben Bernanke's comments in America and it turned up its nose a little bit," RBS Morgans private client adviser Bill Bishop told Fairfax. "There's a little bit of hesitancy in the local market now because of that."
Asian markets were mixed. Shanghai retreated 0.4%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.19% and Japan's Nikkei rallied 1.45%. Dow futures were recently up seven points or less than 0.1%.
A sharp rebound in the US dollar this morning helped push spot gold back below US$1,700 an ounce. Spot gold was lately $16.70 weaker for the morning at US$1,696.20 an ounce. Crude oil futures gave back 32 cents to US$86.43 a barrel. The dollar was buying $US1.0544.
Firstly, commiserations to MEO holders. The last two weeks have been a slow-motion train wreck and a heart-breaker for many long-termers. As Endless astutely observed the other week, day trading is starting to look like the conservative approach to the markets these days. Some days this week have been slow as mud, but this morning offered plenty of scalping opportunities. I took a few points off MEO, SYD, CCL and RUM. The biggest anti-climax was waiting all morning for the gap in LNC to fill and then only getting a lousy part-fill at $1.04. Cruel.
