Daytrading January 14 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares plumbed a fresh two-and-a-half-year low as upbeat jobs data did little to improve the mood and heavy overnight selling on Wall Street rattled Asian markets.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 81 points or 1.6% weaker at 4907 after recording a session low of 4865, the index's worst reading since July 2013. Resource stocks provided the only green, the gold sector rising 4.2% and metals & mining 0.3%.

The energy sector tumbled 3.3% despite a mild improvement in US crude overnight, the first in eight sessions. West Texas Intermediate futures eased 11 cents this morning to US$30.37 a barrel. Also notably weak this morning were consumer discretionary -2.8%, IT -2.6%. health -2.1% and financials -2%.

“It’s hard to get bullish at this stage,” Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Markets, told Bloomberg. “The market focus keeps shifting whenever there’s positive news. We saw very good trade numbers from China yesterday and yet we’ve seen the rebound being short-lived as the focus shifted to commodities. Negative sentiment is dominating.”

December employment data defied expectations for a sharp drop after two months of unexpectedly strong growth. The economy shed just 1,000 jobs, a tenth of the number economists anticipated after jobs increases of 71,400 in November and 56,000 in October. The employment rate held steady at 5.8%, also better than expected.

There was heavy selling in Asia. Japan's Nikkei shed 3.95%, China's Shanghai Composite 1.54% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.93%. Dow futures were recently down 16 points or 0.1%.

Spot gold was $5.30 stronger at US$1,092.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 69.34 US cents.


So much for the relief rally. There's a lot riding now on what the big banks report tomorrow night in the US. Market needs some good news to stiffen the sinews. You'd think we're close to the bottom of this global retrace, but best keep an open mind. Trading: another opportunity to buy the open for that initial 40-point bounce. I had a few buy orders in place, but only APA got hit in the opening flurry. Later picked up MNS and FXJ.