Thanks Endless.
Half-time round-up:
Australian stocks this morning hovered near yesterday's six-year closing high as regional markets and US futures rallied after a leading index pointed to a pick-up in Chinese economic activity.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was unchanged at 5539 after rising as high as 5545 and falling as low as 5530. Consumer staples -0.4%, industrials -0.2% and financials -0.2% were the biggest drags, offsetting gains in metals & mining +0.7% and utilities +0.4%.
The flat session followed overnight falls on Wall Street and European markets after a weekend of fighting in Gaza and increasing diplomatic pressure on Russia over the downing of a passenger jet over Ukraine. US traders are expected to switch their attention back to domestic matters tonight, with a solid menu of economic data and corporate earnings to digest.
“Markets will start ignoring what’s happening in terms of geopolitics,” Nader Naeimi, head of dynamic asset allocation at AMP Capital Investors, told
Bloomberg. “As sad as it sounds and as tragic the shooting of the plane and loss of life, the broad impact on economic activity is likely to be quite minimal. The broader focus in markets is likely to be economic fundamentals and the earnings season.”
China's Shanghai Composite rallied 0.63% after the Conference Board's leading index of economic indicators, which predicts economic activity three to six months into the future, rose 1.3% last month, the strongest reading since December. Hong Kong's Hang Seng put on 1.11% and Japan's Nikkei 0.96%. Dow futures were recently up 20 points or more than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures slid 15 cents this morning to US$104.53 a barrel. Spot gold was 90 cents weaker at US$1,311.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 93.8 US cents.
Some welcome volatility this morning and heavy selling in places. Not all trades set up but enough for a very profitable morning. Caught the first bounce in CAY and traded TON twice pretty well. Probably should have had a few more in play in these conditions. Been suffering from over-caution lately - terrible impediment to successful day trading.
