Thanks Endless, Mitta and morning crew. Happy birthday Brit. May...

Thanks Endless, Mitta and morning crew. Happy birthday Brit. May your glass overflow and your hangover get lost in the mail.


Half-time round-up:

Overnight weakness in key commodities helped steer the share market towards a second day of losses after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signalled a US rate rise next month is a near certainty.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 32 points or 0.6% in the red at 5226 but well above the morning low of 5200. Resource stocks led the retrace after crude oil dipped below US$40 a barrel overnight and iron ore touched US$41.13 a ton. The energy sector lost 1.8%, metals & mining 1.5% and materials 1.3%. Also weak were health -1.4%, gold -0.6% and financials -0.3%. Telecoms +0.3% and IT +0.2% were the only sectors to improve.

Dollar-denominated commodity prices came under pressure after Yellen said US economic growth was strong enough to push inflation back towards the central bank's target of 2%. Weak inflation had been interpreted by some analysts as a reason for the Fed to delay the first increase in its target rate since 2006. Read more here. The S&P 500 slumped 1.1%.

"The US economy has had the training wheels support of ultra-easy monetary policy, and suddenly they’re being told by their parent - the Fed - it’s time to take them off," Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors, told Bloomberg. "Naturally, the markets, like the child, are feeling nervous.”

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.18%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.53% and Japan's Nikkei 0.34%. Dow futures were recently ahead ten points or less than 0.1%.

In economic news, a measure of services activity contracted further last month to 48.2 from an October reading of 48.9. The trade deficit widened to $3.3 billion during October from $2.4 billion the previous month as imports stalled and exports increased 3%.

Crude oil futures recovered three cents this morning to US$40.12 a barrel after touching US$39.94 in overnight trade and settling at US$40.09. Spot gold was $3.60 weaker at US$1,049.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.97 US cents.


Some of the heat seems to have come out of the speculative end of the market. There are still a handful of runners each day, but the recent focus on mid-cap smash-ups such as SGH, DHS and SPO may be indicative of lack of opportunity elsewhere. I wanted SPO a little lower today and missed the rebound. Likewise with RYG. Been my slowest morning in a few weeks - just one buy and that was a regulation low-risk low-return buy in AZJ under $5.40.