daytrading jan 6 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks weakened for a second day despite a mixed morning on Asian markets as European debt problems continued to sideline buyers.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 22 points or 0.5% at 4120 with all ASX sectors except gold +0.3% and consumer discretionary +0.1% losing ground. Financials were one of the biggest drags, falling 0.9%.

"Europe is going to be a headwind with all the bond auctions coming up," Belinda Allen, senior investment analyst at Colonial First State Global Asset Management in Sydney, told Bloomberg. "The first bond auctions from Germany and France did relatively okay, but there's a risk Italy won't perform as well. Markets are a lot more comfortable with the US economy at this point in time. The outlook really hinges on Europe and China."

Asian markets headed in different directions this morning. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.81% while Shanghai recouped 0.49% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.75%. Dow futures were recently down nine points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures eased another 23 cents this morning to US$101.51 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.30 softer at US$1,620.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.026.


Slow morning. Precious little movement and what little there was was mostly down. If I had a beer for every buy order I placed this morning that didn't get hit, I'd have had a very jolly morning. Snared a few AIO, QAN and AIX at their lows but they're unlikely to deliver much more than pin money.