daytrading jan 31 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The share market remained on course for a fourth straight losing week despite a modest rebound this morning on positive overnight leads from Wall Street.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was four points or 0.1% higher at 5192 as traders waited for further evidence that this month's global retreat has bottomed. Gains in utilities +1.4%, consumer discretionary stocks 0.8% and telecoms +0.4% outweighed falls in gold stocks -0.5%, health -0.1% and financials -0.1%. The materials sector edged up 0.2%.

"Emerging market concerns continue to linger as do concerns about the US Fed's asset purchase reduction," Matthew Sherwood, head of investment markets research at Perpetual, told Bloomberg. "So far no corporation has come out and stated that the slowdown we are seeing in China has materially altered the earnings outlook, which means that market dips are being used as good entry points."

Trading volumes across the region were light as markets in China, Hong Kong and Singapore closed for Lunar New Year holidays. Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.43% after December data showed industrial output increased by 1.1% from the previous month. Emini Dow futures were recently up 13 points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures rallied 29 cents this morning to US$98.20 a barrel. Spot gold eased 10 cents to US$1,243 an ounce. The dollar was buying 88 US cents.


The market looks to be in wait-and-see mode today, which means it will either have a bit of catching up to do on Monday or it will have pre-empted any decline on Wall Street tonight. Either way, it made for a pretty stodgy morning. Not much volume in the slim handful of runners. I'm off to Mudgee for the weekend, so I sat on my hands. Hoped for quick intraday opportunities but didn't identify any with the necessary margin of safety. Have a good weekend, all.