Thanks Brit and morning crew. Half-time round-up: A volatile...

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A volatile morning saw shares swing through a 60-point trading range before giving up most of their gains as Chinese factory data disappointed and traders took to the sidelines ahead of an RBA rate decision.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was unchanged at 4880 after being up as much as 51 points in early trade. Caution set in ahead of mid-session manufacturing updates from China that confirmed on-going weakness. The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 49 last month from a January reading of 49.4. Economists had expected the gauge to hold steady. A measure of services activity eased to 52.7 from 53.5 but remained above the 50-point level that separates contraction from expansion. A rival private measure also missed expectations, falling to 48 from 48.4.

The data took the heat out of an anticipated rally after Chinese regulators last night cut the amount of money lenders have to hold in reserve.

“It promises to be a huge day for markets,” Chris Weston, chief markets strategist at IG, told Bloomberg. “In theory, we should gain a real sense of how traders aggregate a 50 basis-point cut from the PBOC [People's Bank of China]. We should see some upside in Chinese equity markets.”

Resource stocks provided the early momentum, with the gold sector surging 5.2%, metals & mining 2.4% and energy 0.9%. Telecoms was the biggest drag, falling 4.1% as Telstra traded without its dividend. The financial sector also turned negative, dipping 0.2%.

Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite gave up 0.19%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng bounced 0.47% and Japan's Nikkei shed 0.93%. Dow futures were recently off 43 points or 0.26%.

Crude oil futures slid 20 cents this morning to US$33.55 a barrel. Spot gold improved $10.10 to US$1,246.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.14 US cents.


Can't complain about current volatility levels if you're day trading. The market hasn't gone anywhere for four days so far as the close is concerned but there has been plenty of intraday range to work with. Gold has taken off again after the Chinese news - anticipating more stimulus? US futures have turned negative. Trading: managed to get a few pips out of SGH, but the market now appears to be pricing in a risk of failure, so will be wary of it from now. Also scored in ODN, TON and ISX.