Australian shares marched higher with regional markets this morning amid renewed optimism after Wall Street shrugged off the biggest contraction in US economic growth in five years.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 41 points or 0.8% ahead at 5444 and on track for a second straight weekly gain. A broad rally saw all sectors rise except property trusts (-0.2%) where a swag of stocks traded without their dividends. The session's biggest gains came in consumer discretionary +1.5%, gold +1.3%, consumer staples +1% and financials +1%.
“The US market didn’t react negatively to the revised GDP data, which bodes well for markets here,” Masaaki Yamaguchi, equity market strategist at Nomura Holdings in Japan, told Bloomberg. “Asian markets are doing okay after getting a correction yesterday.”
China's Shanghai Composite rallied 0.37%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.79% and Japan's Nikkei 0.31%. Dow futures were recently up 11 points or less than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures retreated 23 cents this morning to US$106.56 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.50 softer at US$1,316 an ounce. The dollar was buying 94.02 US cents.
Haven't found a trade yet today. Been in the right place once or twice but didn't get a fill. It happens. Big boys don't cry.
