Thanks Beany and morning regulars. Gotta agree with earlier comments that there is a good vibe on the forum at present. Let's keep it going.
Half-time round-up:
The share market erased two days of falls this morning as sentiment improved in the US ahead of tomorrow night's rate decision and the Reserve Bank indicated further cuts to the Australian cash rate were possible.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 61 points or 1.1% ahead at 5860 as the energy sector rebounded 2% from a five-week low and financials rallied 1.5%. Other notable moves included rises of 1.4% in telecoms and 0.9% in metals & mining and a fall of 0.8% in the Small Ordinaries.
The dollar wobbled briefly following the 11.30am EST release of the minutes from this month's RBA policy meeting, but quickly made up most of its losses. The dollar was lately buying 76.22 US cents, down a fifth of a cent from first thing this morning.
"On the basis of the current forecasts for growth and inflation, members were of the view that a case to ease monetary policy further might emerge,’’ the minutes said. ‘‘Members saw benefit in allowing some time for the structure of interest rates and the economy to adjust to the earlier change.’’
China's Shanghai Composite extended yesterday's gains, rising 0.52%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.13% and Japan's Nikkei 0.81%. Dow futures were recently down 25 points or more than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures retreated 19 cents this morning to US$43.69 a barrel. Spot gold was 60 cents firmer at US$1,153.80 an ounce.
Reserve Bank seems to be hinting that it is in no rush to cut the cash rate. Forex traders didn't like that message much, but the XJO barely reacted. Trading: frustrating morning. Looked at both SRX and OSL and decided to take the latter on the basis of superior leverage. Unfortunately where a quick buy was rewarded handsomely in SRX, the opposite was true of OSL. The reaction seems disproportionate to any overlap between the two companies, but the market says otherwise. Better fortune with HHL, which is basically the same trade because of the company's exposure to SRX. Also caught a nice bounce in VRL, which has the volume to be tradeable again after years in the doldrums. Rather regretting selling my PXS shares for half a pip at 10.5c the other day...
