daytrading june 27 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares this morning advanced for the first session in five as Asian markets crept higher in cautious trade ahead of tomorrow's European summit.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 23 points or 0.6% at 4036 as gains in financials, energy stocks and defensive sectors out-weighed falls in mining stocks and IT. The Small Ordinaries was unchanged versus a 0.6% rise in blue chips as tax-loss selling ahead of the end of the financial year continued to hamper the small end of town.

This morning's rally pared a 120-point decline in the benchmark index since it hit a one-month high a week ago. The decline came as expectations for a European Union summit starting tomorrow were dampened by a series of pre-emptive statements by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Markets have already priced in a lot of the bad news," Nader Naeimi, head of dynamic asset allocation at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney, told Bloomberg. "All you need for a rally in equities is for the backdrop to become less bad. When the housing sector improves it has a strong trickle-down effect to the wider US economy. But there's still a struggle with what's going on in Europe."

Japan's Nikkei was unchanged this morning, but Shanghai put on 0.17% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.72%. Dow futures were recently down four points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures gained seven cents this morning at US$79.52 a barrel. Spot gold was 30 cents firmer at US$1,573.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0065.


Good to see the XJO respect the seven-month low set earlier this month. Short-term bottom in place? Let's hope so. The XSO, on the other hand, looks awful, hitting a three-year low this morning and flirting with a seventh straight intraday loss. Most likely tax-loss selling after a pretty awful 12 months among the juniors. Having got myself in trouble in SWM yesterday, I doubled up at the close and had the good fortune to see the price open at my break-even. Out now and looking forward to a better night's sleep tonight. Scalped PRR this morning for not much and caught NTU near the low.