daytrading jan 19 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares hit a six-week high this morning but pared gains following a drop in employment.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 16 points or 0.4% at 4234 after earlier trading as high as 4258. Financials +0.7% and resource stocks +1.1% steered the index higher. Property trusts, telecoms and industrials were among a handful of sectors to lose ground.

The index hit its high in the opening minutes of trade and accelerated a pullback after the 11.30am AEST of jobs data that showed the unemployment rate steady at 5.2% despite a fall in employment of 29,300 last month.

"The overall outcome suggests the labour market is soft,"
NAB economist Alexandra Knight told Fairfax. "It's consistent with recent softness in domestic activity. It shows there has been a bit of 'discouraged worker' effect because we've seen the participation rate fall as well as the unemployment rate."

Most Asian markets followed the bullish overnight lead from Wall Street, sending a regional index higher for a third day. Japan's Nikkei rallied 1.16%, Shanghai fell 0.23% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.45%. Dow futures were recently down three points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures rallied 50 cents this morning to US$101.36 a barrel. Spot gold was 60 cents stronger at US$1,663 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0402.


A solid morning and could have been better still if not for the jobs report and further softness in Shanghai. Well done to the WRG traders. I had a couple of trades in SGP and grabbed some NEU when it fell back to the 2.2c buy zone.