Thanks Brit and morning crew. Half-time round-up: The share...

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market advanced strongly towards its third gain of the week after a brief blip following news that unemployment jumped last month, pushing the dollar lower.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 94 points or 1.9% ahead at 4976 after earlier extending its rebound this week beyond 200 points or 4%. A broad rally lifted all sectors except gold (-0.2%), with energy +4.1%, metals & mining +4% and materials +3.4% to the fore.

The consumer discretionary sector rallied 2.3% despite an up-tick in the jobless rate last month to 6% from 5.8% in December. The rise came as the economy lost 7,900 jobs, versus expectations for an increase of 13,000. The loss of 40,600 full-time jobs accounted for the changed. The dollar dived around half a cent on the news, lately buying 71.64 US cents.

Asian markets followed positive overnight leads from the US and Europe as crude oil continued to recover from 12-year lows. China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.87%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 2.58% and Japan's Nikkei 2.59%. Dow futures were recently ahead by 27 points or 0.16%.

“The storm is blowing over and markets are stabilising,” Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management, told Bloomberg. “Declines in oil had been weighing on risk sentiment, so it’s a positive sign that prices are rebounding.”

Crude oil futures ran up another 51 cents this morning to US$31.17 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.80 softer at US$1,208.60 an ounce.


Good to see the market shrug off the latest fantasy jobs figures. The swings over the last couple of years have become so unbelievable that you wonder if North Korea is doing the research. I'm sure they're broadly accurate over the long term but pretty useless on a month-to-month basis. Trading: Slim pickings again, small win in TSV. Picked up RFX.