Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
Shares recouped yesterday's losses as global markets shrugged off Sunday's anti-establishment vote in Italy and as a decline in the US dollar boosted mining stocks.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 45 points or 0.8% stronger at 5445, just ahead of Friday's close of 5444. The big miners and banks led the rally, with the metals & mining sector up 2.1%, gold 1.6%, materials 1.4%, energy 1.3% and financials 1.1%.
Today's reversal came after US and most European markets improved overnight despite news that voters resoundingly rejected Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's constitutional reform package.
“Investors shrugged off the anti-establishment messages from the Italian referendum to drive share prices higher,” Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, told
Bloomberg. “Attention now turns to the [US] Fed’s interest-rate decision next week, the last listed major risk event for the year.”
China's Shanghai Composite improved 0.23%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.73% and Japan's Nikkei 0.69%. Dow futures were recently down four points or 0.02%.
Crude oil futures slid 50 cents or 0.97% this morning to US$51.31 a barrel. Gold futures were $1 or 0.1% softer at US$1,175.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 74.56 US cents.
Still struggling with man flu, so no trades today. My advice: stay away from kids' birthday parties if you want to enjoy a long, healthy life. Those little incubators carry every germ known to mankind and a few science does not yet know about.
