Thanks Brit and morning regulars. Half-time round-up: The share...

Thanks Brit and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

The share market overcame weak commodity prices, soft US equity futures and a mixed morning on Asia to push towards a sixth straight advance this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 18 points or more than 0.3% ahead at 5705, with gains in yield stocks offsetting falls in resource sectors. The best returns came in IT +1.4%, consumer staples +0.8% and energy +0.6%. The financials sector rose 0.5%. The gold sector fell 2.7% to a six-month low. Also weak were metals & mining -1.1%  and materials -0.6%.

"This commodities rout is a very big concern,” Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Markets, told Bloomberg. “There’s risk for a further downside. It looks like the overall global growth outlook is continuing to slow.”

US equity futures retreated after IBM's Q2 profit report fell short of revenue expectations this morning. Dow futures were recently off 21 points or more than 0.1%.

Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.48%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.33% and Japan's Nikkei added 0.43%.

Spot gold bounced $8.80 this morning to US$1,103.80 an ounce. Crude oil futures were flat at US$49.99 a barrel. The dollar was buying 73.72 US cents.


A hint of bargain hunting amongst the gold miners at the lows this morning. Too early to go in hard but today looks more promising than yesterday. My lowball bids didn't get hit. Got something out of BKN and took small speculators in ALY and AUQ.