daytrading jan 15 afternoon

Thanks Endless. Welcome back Cgull.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares have edged higher for a second day as strength in Asian markets offset overnight weakness on Wall Street.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was eight points or 0.2% ahead at 4728 with gains in health +1.1%, gold +1% and financials +0.1% helping to steer the market higher. Telecoms -0.5% and industrials -0.4% were the only sectors to lose ground.

Asian markets continued to rally as US futures showed little reaction to a speech this morning by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The Fed chief described the US recovery as "relatively fragile" and called on Congress to raise the debt ceiling. Read more here. Dow futures were recently up five points or less than 0.1%. Shanghai rallied 0.47%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.31% and Japan's Nikkei 1.32%.

Crude oil futures pulled back 15 cents this morning to US$94.07 a barrel. Spot gold was 70 cents firmer at US$1,667.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.056.


Plenty of movement out there, with a few of this week's souffles collapsing as fast as they rose. Another mixed morning at this trading desk with plenty of buys yet to come to fruition. Good to see RXL stabilise. Missed a couple of easy bounces at the open in LNC and BSL - should have been on those. Nailed the first bounce in AKM, plus a paltry half pip in UXC when the bounce stalled. Bounce buys in ABC, AFR and FAR have gone nowhere yet.