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

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A global rally and news of stronger-than-expected economic growth last quarter helped propel shares to a one-week high this morning.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was trading 86 points or 1.75% ahead at 5009 as the big banks enjoyed their strongest session in at least a month. The financials sector was last up 3.3%, paced by energy +3.1% and materials +1.5%. Traditional havens lost ground, including gold -6% and utilities -0.5%. The gains followed a strong night on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 jumped 2.37% to an eight-week high after crude oil hit an eight-week peak.

“We are getting a bit of stability in markets,” Nader Naeimi, head of dynamic markets at AMP Capital Investors, told Bloomberg. “Most of the panic is behind us. People are underestimating just how much ammunition central banks have. US growth is slow but steady.”

The dollar jumped nearly half a cent after data showed the economy was stronger than expected at the end of last year. Growth in GDP eased to 0.6% over the last three months of 2015 from 0.9% in the three months through to September, ahead of the 0.4% figure anticipated by economists. Annual growth was also stronger at 3%, versus expectations for a reading around 2.5%.

"People were braced for a downside surprise, and obviously we didn't get that," NAB senior economist David de Garis told the ABC. "The 3% figure for the year is getting the attention. That's half-a-percentage-point above where the RBA thought we'd be. Given Australia is going through the biggest mining pullback in our lifetimes, this is a pretty good outcome. Our baseline is that the RBA is done cutting, and these numbers only support that view."

China's Shanghai Composite rallied 0.92%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 2.06% and Japan's Nikkei 3.65%. Dow futures were recently off two points or 0.01%.

Crude oil futures eased 42 cents this morning to US$33.98 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.30 weaker at US$1,227.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.28 US cents.


Sentiment is well and truly on the improve. A chance we'll get a higher high in the next day or two to match the higher low set earlier this week. Meantime, keep an eye on crude - come off quite a bit this morning. Trading: scratchy morning. Speculators in TSV (high-volume capitulation low today?) and BLK.