Daytrading March 15 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew for today and Mitta for yesterday. No breakthroughs on the woman missing in the Blue Mountains, I'm sad to say. Not for lack of effort - there are more than a hundred volunteers out there each day scouring the bush. There were people there yesterday who had driven 300km to help. Very tough terrain. Mild conditions for the time of the year, so hypothermia hasn't been a risk, but the creeks are not running, so dehydration may be. Very hard on the family.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares dented a two-week rally as caution gripped global markets ahead of a string of central bank meetings.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 60 points or 1.2% weaker at 5127 and looking likely to give back some of the 300 points the index has put on so far this month. Gold -3%, metals & mining -2.2% and energy -1.7% were the biggest drags after overnight retreats in key commodities. Also weak were financials -1.4% and consumer discretionary -1.1%. The only sector to make headway was telecoms +0.1%.

This morning's reversal came after a mixed night on Wall Street as traders took to the sidelines ahead of several policy announcements from around the globe. Economic policy statements are due this week from the central banks of Japan (this afternoon), the US (Thursday morning), Switzerland and the UK (Thursday night).

“Markets continue to fret over how much firepower central banks have left and whether reassuring words and preemptive actions will be sufficient to keep the global expansion on track,” Mark Smith, senior economist at ANZ Bank New Zealand, told Bloomberg. “Activity sides of economies have generally fared reasonably well thus far, but with inflation already very low, the risk is that an adverse global shock could generate a bout of sustained outright deflation, which is likely causing some sleepless nights in the central-bank fraternity.”

Asian markets also trended lower. China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.58%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.59% and Japan's Nikkei 0.13%. Dow futures were recently 12 points or 0.1% lower.

Crude oil futures improved six cents or 0.16% this morning to US$37.24 a barrel. Spot gold was $16.80 weaker at US$1,228.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 74.83 US cents.


Big dump in gold this morning. Caution ahead of the Fed? OPEC is talking up the oil price again, proposing a meeting next month. History suggests it won't led to anything substantial - like herding cats, trying to get them to agree on anything. Trading: back in the groove with bounces in 88E and SEA. EXU proving slower to respond.