Thanks Brit and morning regulars. Half-time round-up: Upbeat US...

Thanks Brit and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

Upbeat US equity futures and a positive start to the Asian trading week failed to lift Australian shares as the local market continued its recent struggles to put together back-to-back rises.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 16 points or 0.3% weaker at 5581 as advances in property trusts +1.4%, telecoms +0.7% and gold +0.1% were overshadowed by falls in metals & mining -1%, energy -1.1% and financials -0.3%. The index has managed back-t0-back gains just once in almost four weeks.

US futures took on an optimistic tone after Greece announced it will bring a new proposal to tonight's emergency meeting of European finance chiefs. Dow futures were recently up 66 points or almost 0.4%.

“Originally there wasn’t going to be one, so the fact that there’s a new [Greek debt] proposal on the table appears to be seen favourably,” Shoji Hirakawa, chief equity strategist at Okasan Securities in Japan, told Bloomberg. “We need to keep looking at whether or not there’ll be pension cuts in Greece, but the US market seems to be reacting somewhat positively.”

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 0.45% and Japan's Nikkei 0.8%. Trade on China's Shanghai Composite was suspended for a public holiday.

Crude oil futures slipped 12 cents or 0.2% this morning to US$59.49 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.40 weaker at US$1,198.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.8 US cents.


Good to see GCN on the comeback trail after announcing it is moving into the Chinese wine industry (why not - they've tried everything else). I'm salivating at the synergies with the Jermaine Jackson connection - consider the marketing opportunities for exclusive wines where the grapes are trampled by Mr Jackson himself, perhaps wearing the suit from a particular Jackson 5 video - 'I Want You Back' Muscat, 'Doctor My Eyes' Pinot Surprise, 'Doctor My Stomach' Frontignac. Who wouldn't want a piece of that action? Go GCN! Trading: usual mixed bag here. Good wins in CTO and IFL - the latter gave a pretty obvious entry target and the company was always likely to come out with a comment some time today. CTO has been a good trader lately. Less happily in ANN - analyst downgrade.