Thanks Endless. Half-time round-up:The S&P 200 looks likely to...

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The S&P 200 looks likely to finish ahead for a second week following a morning of steady improvement as gains in banks, industrials and defensive stocks offset declines in miners.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 14 points or 0.3% higher at 5364 and on track to top last Friday's close at 5338. Telecoms +0.6%, financials +0.6% and property trusts +0.4% were the cream of the sectors. Gold -2.1% was the worst.

"Investors are a bit unsure given these issues regarding Ukraine, China, how strong the US economy is, when the Fed is tightening and what will happen in Japan after the sale-tax increase," Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP, told Bloomberg. "All of them are causing investors to hold back a little bit and we are seeing messy action in share markets."

The dollar hit a four-month high this morning amid speculation that the current cycle of easing interest rates is over. The Aussie was lately buying 92.93 US cents.

Asian markets rallied this morning, despite modest overnight declines on Wall Street. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.58%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.85% and Japan's Nikkei 0.17%. Dow futures were recently up 14 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures slipped five cents this morning to US$101.32 a barrel. Spot gold was 60 cents weaker at US$1,292.20 an ounce.


All hail Timbo. Nice work on MEU. Good to have some excitement on the thread. I was so busy ducking and diving that I missed the whole show. Looks like the ASX is seeing some of this week's American trend towards profit-taking in the market darlings. Shares like IBY, IPP and XRO have had pretty big retracements over the last week. I picked up the latter two this morning (traded IPP twice but tempted to hold from here - undecided. Bots all over it - market depth is as genuine as a politician's promise.) Still watching IBY. Also had a first dab at AZM - down nearly a third in four sessions. Hesitated on LMB and PAN and missed the bounces. (Von, by the time I saw your XRO query you had posted further down that you were out, so no point in answering. Hope you made a quid. )