Shares have advanced for a seventh straight day as strong Chinese manufacturing data helped offset sagging US futures after Apple missed earnings targets this morning.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 11 points or 0.2% at 4799 after opening in the red. Gains among financials +0.6%, telecoms +0.8% and property trusts +0.4% balanced falls in materials -0.3%, gold -0.3% and health -0.2%.
US futures sagged this morning after shares in market behemoth Apple plunged nearly 10% as earnings and iPhone sales missed targets. Read more here. S&P 500 index futures were lately down 0.4%. Nasdaq index futures were off 1.5%.
"Apple genuinely disappointed people," a senior managing director at Bel Air Investment Advisors in the US told Fairfax. "The market's had a terrific run here, so we were looking for some kind of correction and this might be the catalyst."
Regional markets steadied after Chinese manufacturing data released at 12.45pm EST delivered the strongest result in two years. HCBC's preliminary manufacturing purchasing managers' index climbed to 51.9 from a final reading of 51.5 last month. Analysts had tipped a reading around 51.7. Read more here. Shanghai rallied 0.51%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng eased cut its initial decline to 0.31% and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.17%.
Crude oil futures eased another 22 cents this morning to US$95.38 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.70 softer at US$1,683 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.053.
Market just keeps grinding higher. The daily gains are minimal but seven rises in a row is pretty unusual. If LNC's 400%+ rise in two months isn't a sign of a market in need of a good enema, I don't know what is. The institutions are creating some nice entry conditions among the mid-caps by running prices down and then back up. I've had nice gains this morning in CPU, BLY and AAX. Doesn't always work - still waiting for AMC to come good. Also scalped OBL.
