Daytrading June 20 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A surge in US equity futures and other risk assets helped the Australian share market start the week on the front foot after weekend polling showed the likelihood of a 'Brexit' diminishing.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 57 points or 1.1 % at 5220 after the energy sector surged 3.8% on a positive start to trade in crude oil. West Texas Intermediate improved 43 cents or 0.9% this morning to US$48.41 a barrel after weekend polling showed the odds on Britain voting to quit the European Union on Thursday night have dropped to 30%.

Dow futures were recently up 154 points or 0.9%, suggesting a bullish start to trade in the US tonight. S&P 500 futures were up 20.75 points or 1%.

“We are seeing a risk-on move after the latest Brexit poll,” Niv Dagan, executive director at Peak Asset Management, told Bloomberg. “It may be short lived and volatility is likely to remain high until Thursday’s vote. This really could still go either way.”

The financials sector advanced 2.2%, materials 1.2% and consumer staples 0.9%. Gold stocks were hit by the move away from havens to risk assets, falling 3.3%. Gold futures eased $8.50 or 0.7% this morning to US$1,286.30 an ounce.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7% and Japan's Nikkei 2.17%.  China's Shanghai Composite was lately down 0.45%.

The dollar was buying 74.36 US cents.


There may be volatility between now and Thursday night's Brexit vote, but the worst of the sell-off is likely behind us. Financial markets have the attention span of a teenager and can only concentrate on one issue for so long before they forget what it was they were worrying about. Barring extreme shifts in UK polling, we should move higher from here. Trading: a morning of modest achievement. Got something out of BAR and the brief bounce in EPW, but it's subsistence stuff so far.