Welcome back Oscar. Thanks Tradesurfer for your service to the...

Welcome back Oscar. Thanks Tradesurfer for your service to the cause.


Half-time round-up:

Shares pushed towards their sixth gain in seven sessions and a possible 16-month closing high as the post-US election global rally continued.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 49 points or 0.9% ahead at 5594. A close above 5587 would be the index's strongest since August last year.

Leading the rally were consumer discretionary stocks +1.8%, utilities +1.4% and IT +1.1% after another record night on Wall Street. Global markets have rallied strongly since the US election in expectation that President-elect Donald Trump will enact pro-growth policies.

“We go into the New Year with the market and the [US Federal Reserve] on the same page in terms of where rates are going,” Chris Weston, chief markets strategist at IG, told Bloomberg. “The recent upbeat sentiment - specifically in global equities - has not just been about what ‘Trumponomics’ could bring to inflation and growth, but we are genuinely seeing an improvement in the economic data flow in many developed markets.”

A mixed morning in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite improve 0.24%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gain 0.7% and Japan's Nikkei ease 0.17%. Dow futures were recently off 15 points or 0.08%.

Crude oil futures slid 62 cents or 1.17% this morning to US$52.36 a barrel. Gold futures were $3.90 or 0.34% brighter at US$1,162.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 74.9 US cents.


Things I learned on the threads today: there's a "Red Heart Brigade" and we all work together in league with the brokers. We organise price pumps and then vanish with the loot just before the crash. Our timing is impeccable. All this was news to me. If it's true, why am I not more successful? Jim earned a red heart this week and presumably is in on all this now, so watch yourselves.   Trading: didn't hear from any brokers or other hearts this morning, so I was unable to organise any massive pumps and vanish with the loot. Instead, went about my usual business, clipping pips from the likes of CZN, NTI and BLG. Will continue to do that sort of thing until the hearts let me in on their lucrative scheme.