Daytrading January 6 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market's New Year hangover extended into a fourth session as US equity futures slumped amid ongoing worries about the outlook for China.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 64 points or 1.2% weaker at 5121 with yesterday's best performing sectors - gold and metals & mining - leading the retreat. The gold sector shed 3%, metals & mining 2.9%, materials 2.8% and I.T. 2.5%.

The declines came as investors kept a wary eye on Chinese equities following a mixed session yesterday, a day after the Shanghai Composite tanked almost 7%.

“There’s a healthy dose of caution in our camp,” Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners in New Zealand, told Bloomberg. “There’s still quite a long list of things to worry about and this volatility is going to be with us for some time. We’re still cautious on China and think it gets worse before it gets better. It doesn’t help sentiment when you’re seeing such big moves.”

In early action, China's Shanghai Composite was last up 0.7%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was off 0.17% and Japan's Nikkei 0.56%. Dow futures were recently down 71 points or 0.42%.

Crude oil futures bounced 20 cents this morning to US$36.17 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.60 softer at US$1,075.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.31 US cents.


And the retrace continues. XJO has given up more than 200 points in four sessions, which is closer to what might be expected when China is the dominant theme on global markets. Felt like we got off too lightly yesterday. Not that it matters yet for the specs, which remain lively. The pullbacks in NAG and ODN this morning were tailormade for my approach and very rewarding. Needed it after dropping a bit yesterday on TPI and PGH.