Thanks Endless, Bargearse, McKagan, Jomb and the usual suspects...

Thanks Endless, Bargearse, McKagan, Jomb and the usual suspects from this morning - it's a privilege to be part of the crew here.

Half-time round-up:

Investors rotated into defensive assets this morning as the stock market pushed towards a fifth straight week of gains despite the budget stalemate in the US.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 13 points or 0.3% stronger at 4631 and nearly 50 points ahead of where the index started the week. Traditional defensive sectors led the rally as resource sectors and small caps lost ground. Property trusts advanced 1.1%, health stocks 0.9% and utilities 0.8%. Financial stocks inched up 0.3% and materials 0.1% as BHP targetted a 12th straight daily advance for the first time since 1987.

"Cracks appeared in the fiscal-cliff negotiations [in the US overnight]," Stan Shamu, markets strategist at IG Markets, told Bloomberg. "The Republicans failed to come up with a reasonable compromise to President Obama's proposal. Market participants decided to exercise caution despite US leaders still insisting they are hoping to have something done by Christmas."

US futures traded lower this morning following last night's downturn on the major share indices. Dow futures were recently off 25 points or 0.2%. Asian markets weakened ahead of a Bank of Japan rate decision, the first since the election of a new government last weekend. Shanghai fell 0.3%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.12% and Japan's Nikkei 0.97%.

Spot gold softened $3.10 to US$1,667.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0466.


Every trading style has its sweet spot and this is a good time to buy break-outs or follow momentum. There is stirring once again at the lower end of the market - not yet a full-blown "running of the dogs", but the signs are promising. My approach favours buying pullbacks, so I'm watching the latest crop for candidates with genuine legs. Meantime, I've had the bad habit over the last two years of conjuring up my worst trade of the year in the week before Christmas. Last year it was BBG. Yesterday saw me break the Curse of Billabong, only to exchange it for the wizardry of Oz Minerals (the wizardry being that it made my trading account shrink). The damage this year is nothing like as bad as last, but I took the loss this morning so I could move on - holding losing positions corrodes confidence and this game is all about confidence. Clawed a few peanuts back in JIN and GRY. Back into the former for a second go.