Thanks Brit and morning crew. Half-time round-up: Australian...

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares pared yesterday's stellar gains as caution ahead of the first of the week's global market-moving events outweighed unexpectedly strong domestic economic growth data.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was off 11 points or 0.2% at 5257, denting yesterday's 100-point rally. Gains in the gold sector +0.8% and financials +0.2% were countered by falls in industrials -1.8%, health -1.1% and telecoms -0.4%.

A run of 'big ticket' global economic events starts tonight with a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen,  continues with a much-anticipated European Central Bank policy meeting and testimony from Yellen before a Joint Senate/House Economic Committee tomorrow night, and climaxes with the November US jobs report and an OPEC meeting on Friday.

Back home, economic growth accelerated more than expected last quarter, according to data released this morning. Gross domestic product increased 0.9% over the three months to September, up from 0.3% the previous quarter and ahead of the consensus prediction for growth of 0.7%. Growth year-on-year increased to 2.5% from a June reading of 2%.

"The largest contribution to economic growth this quarter was exports of goods and services, up 4.6 per cent," the ABS said in a statement quoted on Fairfax. "This was concentrated in mining commodities, which is reflected by strong growth in mining activity, bouncing back after a decline in the June quarter."

China's Shanghai Composite retreated 0.54%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.05 % and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.32%. Dow futures were recently down five points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures eased seven cents this morning to US$41.65 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.40 firmer at US$1,069.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.17 US cents.


Amazing performance by the market yesterday, so no surprise that it is taking a breather today. The risk of external surprises increases from tonight, although yesterday's buying suggests optimism about what lies ahead. Good solid GDP number this morning - further confirmation that the economy continues to defy the Chinese downturn. Trading: busy morning, but one where my broker likely did better from my efforts than I did. I'm ahead, but the profits were pretty thin in places. Got something out of SPO but didn't trade it well enough to really cash in. Irritating part-fills in MOZ and TLM for peanuts. Lost patience too soon with RFN - stupid. Also traded BLK and APA. Mainly nickel and dime stuff.