daytrading jan 18 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares rallied for a third day as investors applauded a change of leadership at market heavyweight Rio Tinto and regional markets advanced ahead of Chinese economic growth figures.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 18 points or 0.4% stronger at 4775 and on track to seal its eighth winning week from the last nine. Resource stocks provided much of the momentum as RIO rallied more than 3% following the sacking of CEO Tom Albanese after some disastrous acquisitions. The metals & mining sector advanced 0.9%, materials 0.9%, energy 0.7% and gold 0.4%.

Shortly before the 1pm EST release of quarterly Chinese GDP figures, the Shanghai Composite was ahead 0.92%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.82% and Japan's Nikkei 2.16%. Dow futures were off three points or less than 0.1%.

"The macroeconomic risks that the markets have been dealing with for the last couple of years continue to recede," the chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in the US told Bloomberg. "As a result, equity risk premiums will compress around the world."

Crude oil futures retreated eight cents this morning to US$95.23 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.20 firmer at US$1,688.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0536.


Sneaked this out a minute early to avoid any mayhem when the Chinese figures hit screens. Not that the Chinese government likes surprises, but you never know. Good to see to the bull run continue ahead of those numbers. What an amazing rally since mid-November. If you happen to have lucked into the market in the last two months, these are unusually bullish conditions and cannot continue indefinitely. Enjoy but guard against complacency. Been a low-key day at this desk. Used the early bounce in DCG to exit an overnight hold. Traded the bounce in TEN and enjoyed the rebound in RXL - hopefully more to come there next week. Finally, because it's Friday and it makes me giggle, here's a completely gratuitous link to a music video that sums up everything awful about the US: The worst music video of all time.