daytrading feb 28 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares are on track for a third straight monthly rise after Woolworths beat earnings expectations and Asian markets chased Wall Street higher.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 33 points or 0.7% stronger at 5070 and on course for its eighth advance in nine months. The consumer staples sector was one of the picks this morning, rising 1.1% after Woolworths announced a 6% rise in first-half earnings. Also strong were energy +1.3%, financials +1% and consumer discretionary +0.8%.

"The buy-on-dips strategy is pretty much in play," Tim Schroeders of Pengana Capital told Bloomberg. "We're definitely pricing in a lot more good news in equities."

Asian markets picked up where Wall Street left off overnight. Shanghai rallied 0.12%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.84% and Japan's Nikkei 1.94%. Dow futures were recently up two points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures rallied 29 cents this morning to US$93.15 a barrel. Spot gold was 20 cents weaker at US$1,596.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0278.


Pretty ordinary capital expenditure numbers this morning but the market barely skipped a beat. There's so much optimism in the air that even that old curmudgeon Gerry Harvey sounded less grumpy this morning. He says you're still not spending enough at his stores but he's pleased he doesn't have to discount as much as he did last year to get you through the door. I spent the session finding the bugs in the latest version of CommSec Iress, which I downloaded this morning. Bit like driving a new car - you don't want to floor it until you understand its quirks. And there are many. Managed to squeeze a quick revenge trade out of ICG and caught the first bounce in SFR. Had a first tentative look at WTF, which at the moment looks foolhardy. Tight stop.