Shares hit a two-and-a-half-week high this morning before paring gains as investors parsed a mixed bag of corporate results and a decline in consumer sentiment.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 23 points or 0.45% at 5278 after hitting 5288 in early action, its highest point since Australia Day. I.T. +3.5, property trusts +1.4%, and materials +1.3% were the best of the sectors.
The morning's earnings reports evoked positive responses for OZL, BLD, DMP, SKE, CPU, CRZ, SGH and SGP and downturns in CBA, GFF, PRY, CSL and DOW. CBA announced a record half-year profit and an increased dividend.
Consumer sentiment deteriorated for a third straight month, according to a Westpac-Melbourne Institute index. The gauge fell to 100.2 this month from 103.3 in January.
"Households seem to be sending a fairly clear message in this survey," Westpac chief economist Bill Evans told Fairfax. "It is around questioning why fiscal policy is about to be tightened and interest rates lifted when the labour market is so weak and housing affordability is being squeezed."
China's Shanghai Composite inched up 0.2% ahead of monthly trade figures. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.43% and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.63%. Emini Dow futures were recently off six points or less than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures rallied another 42 cents this morning to US$100.31 a barrel. Spot gold gave back $3.20 at US$1,286.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 90.23 US cents.
Chinese trade data due any moment now. Back home, the earnings 'winners' appear to outnumber the 'losers' today. CBA's result does not seem to match the expectations set by ANZ yesterday, but any damage is minimal. Wish they would put some of those earnings to work on their trading software, which seemed to slow to 1995 speeds mid-morning around the time I should have been taking a quick profit in RHC. I missed the exit opp and now have a paper loss to brood on. More success with a quick in-out in MMS on the way down. Small intraday speculator in OBJ. Might have made more of the morning if I could see what was going on.
