daytrading july 6 afternoon

Thanks Suzie. Endless, sounds like you might have to deal with the Soup Nazi when you get to New York.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares retreated in line with mild falls across Asia this morning but remained on track for a second straight winning week.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 19 points or 0.5% in the red at 4149 as regional markets followed Wall Street and European bourses lower following a round of central bank stimulus measures overnight. Resource stocks were the biggest drag on the index, with the metals & mining sector falling 1%, energy stocks 0.8%, and gold 0.8%.

"People are not prepared to enter the market at the moment," Patersons Securities dealer Martin Angel told Fairfax. "It is just a case of no confidence."

An overnight rate cut by the People's Bank of China did little to lift sentiment in Asia, where Japan's Nikkei eased 0.19%, Shanghai 0.37% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.3%. Dow futures were recently down seven points or less than 0.1%.

The construction industry continued to struggle last month as activity languished at its weakest level since 2009. The AiG Performance of Construction Index was flat at 34.8 last month, its 25th straight month of contraction.

Crude oil futures eased 14 cents this morning to US$86.64 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.20 firmer at US$1,606.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.026.


No enthusiasm or real direction on the markets this morning. The ECB decision was well anticipated and there's a suspicion that conditions in China must be deteriorating faster than the government expected. I've been trade repellant all morning. The market reversed every time I placed a buy order. Been a very lacklustre week for me - my only real killing was the last 10 minutes of trade on Monday when DJS reopened and offered a quick 10 pips.