Daytrading Dec 17 afternoon

Thanks Shants and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares have rallied for the first time in seven sessions as relative calm returned to Asian equities following a tumultuous 24 hours on world financial markets.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 29 points or 0.6% ahead at 5181 as energy stocks +3.3%, telecoms +1.3% and materials +1.2% spearheaded a rebound from yesterday's two-month low. Gold stocks -0.9% and consumer discretionary stocks -0.9% brought up the rear.

Asian markets advanced ahead of tonight's US Federal Reserve meeting, which is widely anticipated to clear up some of the uncertainty about the central bank's intentions next year. China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.12%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.09% and Japan's Nikkei 0.48%. Dow futures were recently ahead 46 points or almost 0.3%.

“Focus now switches to the FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] meeting, which has been pinned as a pivotal one,” Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG, told Bloomberg. “The challenge will be how to proceed given the backdrop of turmoil in the rest of the world.”

Crude oil futures declined 96 cents this morning to US$55.06 a barrel. Spot gold strengthened $3.20 to US$1,197.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 82.17 US cents.


Trading ranges contracted sharply today as the big money - the kind that can actually move the market - decided a counter-trend rally was safe at these levels. US futures are positive but probably have little to do with the change in sentiment because they have been positive all week around this time. The optimist in me says there is still time for a modest Santa rally before Christmas if Russia and oil settle down and the market decides it has pre-empted whatever the Fed offers tonight. Trading: I entered the day with a mild defensive bias after two days of plenty, and took an eternity to find trades. In the last half hour, took FLT below $35 and TPI at 80.5c.