daytrading jan 28 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The share market hit a five-week low this morning before trimming falls as business conditions data improved and US futures shrugged off badly-received earnings from market heavyweight Apple.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 32 points or 0.6% in the red at 5208, well above the morning low of 5159. Telecoms and industrials were the best of the sectors, both up 0.1%. Metals & mining fell 1.3%, the Small Ords 1.1% and financials 0.7%.

"China will continue to spook investors," Toby Lawson, head of futures, options and cash equities trading for Asia-Pacific at Newedge Group, told Bloomberg. "Investors just need to ride out this volatility until we find a bottom."

A bounce in the index was given added impetus by news that business conditions reached a two-and-a-half-year high last month, according to a NAB survey. A gauge of conditions rose to four points from minus three in November as business confidence remained unchanged at +6.

Also helping sentiment were broadly resilient US futures despite an 8% plunge in Apple shares in after-market trade as the tech giant announced weak sales of the latest iPhone and projected earnings below analyst targets. Dow futures were recently up 39 points or 0.25%, S&P 500 futures ahead 0.1% and Nasdaq futures down 0.6%, reflecting Apple's weight/presence on each index.

Asian markets were stable. China's Shanghai Composite bounced 0.25%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng opened unchanged and Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.35%.

Crude oil futures edged up seven cents this morning to US$95.82 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.60 firmer at US$1,257.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 87.61 US cents.


Plenty of traders/investors betting that Wall Street is short-term oversold and due a bounce tonight. Technical indicators suggest as much, but such is Apple's index weighting that a lot of other shares are going to have to go pretty well to compensate. On days like this I look for shares opening near horizontal support, ideally after several days pullback, where the shorts might use the weakness to take profits. Worked well with ARI today. Also took JHX because it opened near support and low enough to offer limited downside. Small bounce in BOL. Decent morning but wanted more buys than I got.