Daytrading December 21 afternoon

Thanks Brit and Christmas week die-hards.


Half-time round-up:

Shares retreated this morning for the first time in four sessions as crude oil slipped further below US$35 a barrel and Japan's main index tracked Friday's heavy fall on Wall Street.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 12 points or 0.2% lower at 5094 after a rally in the first hour of trade faded. Leading this morning's sell-off were the health sector -1.3%, property trusts -0.7%, telecoms -0.6% and utilities -0.6%.

The energy sector bucked the downtrend with a rise of 0.9% despite a weak start to this week's trading in US crude futures. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was lately down 27 cents or 0.8% at US$34.46 after settling at a six-year low on Friday.

US stocks fell sharply for a second day on Friday as a pre-Fed rate announcement rally continued to unwind. The Dow lost 367 points or 2.1%, dashing hopes in the middle of last week that a Santa rally was underway.

"Hopes that a year-end rally was getting under way have been dashed," CMC chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Fairfax. "Even if it does materialise, any year-end rally may be just more range trading, rather than the beginning of a concerted push above resistance. Friday's sell-off underscores the difficulty the US stock market currently has in playing its traditional role as leader of world market rallies. US valuations are full already. This makes the US market vulnerable to risk off moves. The local market is in for a nervous start to the week."

Japan's Nikkei declined 1.54%. China's Shanghai Composite opened little changed at +0.17%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat shortly after open. Dow futures were recently up 44 points or 0.26%.

Spot gold rose $2.70 this morning to at US$1,068.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.71 US cents.


The ASX has been pretty resilient these last two sessions, considering the overseas leads. Pre-empting a rebound in the US? Nice to think so. Trading: a movie critic observing my performance this morning might describe it as "phoned in". I turned up, sat at a desk, looked at some charts, tracked a few share movements and went for lunch. Had I been sharper, I should have been all over NOR and LYC. Instead, I surfed the web, reflected on a weekend of excess and drew a little drinking money from OGC.