Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: The ASX's...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The ASX's four-session rebound stuttered this morning as several risk assets pared gains ahead of tomorrow night's Brexit referendum in the UK.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 12 points or 0.2% ahead at 5287 after swinging in and out of positive territory. Defensive sectors steered the index lower, with the largest falls coming in gold -3%, consumer staples -0.6% and utilities -0.2%. Energy stocks rallied 0.5%, financials 0.5% and telecoms 0.6%.

An uncertain morning on financial markets saw crude oil retreat 42 cents or 0.85% to US$48.95 a barrel and Japan's Nikkei fell 1.03%. Dow futures were unchanged. China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.33% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat.

“It would be logical for markets to begin losing momentum and volume while they wait on the outcome of the Brexit vote,” Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, told Bloomberg. “Short-term traders cannot be blind to the risks that despite recent confidence high volatility and short term illiquidity remain a possibility as the results of the Brexit vote unfold.”

Gold futures were 70 cents or 0.1% softer at US$1,271.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 74.55 US cents.


Things I would do differently if I had my time again: ask the cute girl in high school to dance; turn down the last beer; and raise my buy order on RFT this morning from 2.9c to 3c. As mistakes go, the last one is a belter. I then watched and waited for a pullback that when it finally happened was way outside my comfort zone. Scratched out a win in GEM, took SFR a little early but may still come good. Also TSN at 2c.