Thanks Endless. Half-time round-up:The share market is on track...

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The share market is on track for a third week of gains and its third highest close in 17 months after an unexpectedly bullish morning boosted all sectors.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 44 points or 1% at 4553, a level last seen in mid-October when the index hit its strongest level since July last year, twice closing above 4559. Property trusts topped the sector gains, rising 1.9%. Other significant rises included health +1.7% following an analyst upgrade for CSL, gold +1.3%, financials +1% and materials +0.9%.

The advance came despite a muted morning on Asian markets ahead of tonight's monthly jobs report in the US. Shanghai put on 0.32% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei were lately both 0.17%. Dow futures were up three points or less than 0.1%.

The day's economic data came in slightly better than expected, but still pointed to soft overall conditions. The trade deficit was the biggest since 2008 in October at $2.088 billion, just below the economists' consensus expectation of $2.2 billion. The AiG/HIA construction index improved 1.2 points to 37 last month but remained stuck at "slump" levels.

"The trade figures once again just show that our export sectors continue to struggle with the high Australian dollar," NAB senior economist Spiros Papadopoulos told Fairfax. "Our trade position is continuing to deteriorate on the back of weaker commodity prices and the high Australian dollar impacting on our export sector."

Crude oil futures rallied nine cents this morning to US$86.46 a barrel. Spot gold was $3 stronger at US$1,702.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0478.


Tally ho. Not sure what's set the hounds running but it's good to see. The Small Ords kept pace with the blue chips this morning, but opportunities still seemed scarce. I squeezed a wage out of GBG then gave it all back, plus some more, by exiting BKP at a loss. Still holding NST from yesterday arvo.