Daytrading December 17 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares joined regional markets in a belated Santa Rally after Wall Street greeted the first US rate rise in nine years with strong overnight gains.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 86 points or 1.7% ahead at 5114 and on track for a second straight advance. The index yesterday broke a six-session losing run with its biggest rise in nearly four months. Today's session brought gains across the board, with the best returns coming in utilities +2.7%, telecoms +2.3%, health +2% and financials +1.8%.

“There’s a sense of relief that they finally raised rates,” Chris Green, strategist at First NZ Capital, told Bloomberg. “This is a net positive in terms of market sentiment. It’s removed the point of liftoff from the discussion, we’re over that hurdle. Now the question is: how gradual is that normalisation profile and where do the risks lie.”

Asian markets joined the rally. China's Shanghai Composite improved 1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.83% and Japan's Nikkei 2.18%. Dow futures were recently off 43 points or 0.24%.

Crude oil futures edged up three cents this morning to US$35.55 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.40 weaker at US$1,065.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.8 US cents.


The Fed has played this hand pretty well. Got the rate-rise monkey off its back with a minimum of market disruption. Market will have to find something else to fret about. Trading: a snoozy morning here til NOR livened things up. Needed two attempts to get three pips out of it. Now waiting lower down for any dive. Made slow money on EMH. Only mis-step was KRM, which is comatose.