Daytrading Feb 17 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market this morning consolidated two days of strong gains as weakness in resource stocks and a mixed bag of earnings offset positive overnight leads.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was two points or less than 0.1% ahead at 4914 after yesterday pre-empting overnight strength in the US. The benchmark index closed on its high yesterday after jamming on 145 points in two sessions.

A positive morning for consumer stocks (staples +0.9%, discretionary +0.6%), financials +0.8% and gold +0.7% was offset by declines in energy -3.7%, health -1.9% and metals & mining -1.4%. Earnings reports had a big say in sector strength, with misses from the likes of WPL, CSL, ALU, FXL and IGO offset by well-received results from DMP, LLC, CCL, PRY and MSB.

US equity futures reflected optimism after the major indexes closed at their highs overnight. Dow futures were recently up 30 points or 0.19%. China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.64%. Japan's Nikkei eased 0.51%.

Crude oil futures rebounded 28 cents this morning to US$29.32 a barrel. Spot gold was $6.10 weaker at US$1,202.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.07 US cents.


A breather today while the market works out if this is a genuine reversal or just another temporary respite in the downtrend that commenced last April. Damned if I know. Trading: good day yesterday, not a lot happening today. Squeezed subsistence money out of LNG and AYB, but that's it.