Daytrading Feb 25 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares slipped towards a possible third straight loss as CBA marked a two-and-a-half-year low and WES retreated following yesterday's profit update.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was eight points or 0.2% weaker at 4867 after a brief early rally faded. Consumer staples was the biggest weight on the market, falling 1.7% as WES declined for a second day. Also weak were utilities -1.5%, financials -0.5% and consumer discretionary -0.7%. The best of the sectors were IT +1.3%, telecoms +1.3% and energy +0.9%. The rally in energy stocks came after a rebound in crude oil overnight helped Wall Street shake off initial losses.

“You need to see some settling in the oil price and maybe we’re getting there on that one,” Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors, told Bloomberg. “That could be ticked off as a positive but we still need to see more evidence that central banks are doing what they can to stabilise the situation. The volatility reflects the range of views out there and the uncertainty that surrounds the economic outlook.”

A mixed morning in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite call 1.26% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.81%, while Japan's Nikkei improved 0.45%. Dow futures were recently up seven points or 0.04%.

Crude oil futures dipped 14 cents or 0.4% this morning to US$32.01 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.30 softer at US$1,235.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.66 US cents.


Disappointing morning for the index considering the leads. No conviction that last night's US action indicates a genuine reversal. Perhaps understandable when crude oil is in the driving seat and the supply:demand ratio remains unfavourable. Trading: nice morning - two wins in OSL, one in IPH and one in TPW.