Daytrading July 4 afternoon

Thanks Endless. Welcome back, Poly - these trading conditions are right up your alley.

Half-time round-up:

The All Ords has a six-year closing high within reach after upbeat jobs news pushed Wall Street to a record close.

At lunchtime the All Ords was trading 37 points or 0.7% ahead at 5516 after earlier hitting a four-week high. The index's strongest close since the GFC was exactly that level of 5516 on April 28. The ASX 200 was 38 points or 0.7% ahead at 5529, just short of its six-year closing peak of 5536, also set on April 28.

Cyclical stocks outperformed defensives for a third day, with the exception of telecoms +1%. The best gains came in materials +1%, metals & mining +0.9% and financials +0.8%. Property trusts -0.1% and utilities +0.1% brought up the rear. The gains came after unexpectedly strong jobs growth in the US boosted expectations for global economic growth.

“The jobs report was a positive surprise and it confirmed the ongoing recovery in the US labour market,” Masaaki Yamaguchi, equity markets strategist at Nomura Holdings in Japan, told Bloomberg. “That’s adding a tailwind to the market.”

China's Shanghai Composite continued to under-perform other major markets falling 0.31% this morning. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.11% and Japan's Nikkei 0.6%. Dow futures were recently up three points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures dropped another 15 cents this morning to US$103.91 a barrel. Spot gold was $2 weaker at US$1,318.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 93.6 US cents.


Whoosh. No stopping this market over the last three days. Should have been more aggressive about buying Tuesday's lows. MFG still improving and looks to have bottomed. Got a wage out of RFE on pullback. Baffled by the strength in DML and MBN this morning - need to learn to trade the trade and ask questions later. My trading account can't always afford my sceptical brain.