daytrading march 29 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Shares hovered near a 2012 high this morning as gains in defensive sectors offset falls in resource stocks and another red session across Asia.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off four points or 0.1% at 4338 and once again outperforming regional bourses after falls in Europe and the US last night.

"With all the good news being factored in, we are coming to a tougher period and markets are vulnerable to any bad news," Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital told Bloomberg. "We are starting to see data come out on the softer side of what's expected. On its own, the durable goods data is still consistent with the economic growth in the US."

For a second day, the morning's biggest gains came in defensive sectors: health +1.3%, consumer staples +0.6% and utilities +0.5%. Traditional proxies for risk appetite, including small caps and resource stocks, declined. The Small Ordinaries fell 0.4%, metals & mining 0.9% and industrials 0.6%.

Asian markets fell for a second day. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.87%, Shanghai 0.42% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.16%. Dow futures were recently off 13 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures eased 20 cents this morning to US$105.33 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.90 lower at US$1,660.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0347.


The little Aussie battler has stood tall over the last two sessions but how long can it last? By rights the XJO should be anything from 50-100 points lower by now in line with declines in Asia. Currency movements and technical buying have something to do with it, but this week's performance still seems pretty remarkable. Buying blue chips following bad news has been a successful strategy with the new mood of optimism this year and I took a few points out of LEI this morning. Also caught the lows in OBL and BUY. Starting to get tempted by MBN (Burnett, this has your name all over it!) The chart looks awful, volumes are rising, the price of nickel is sliding and shorters are all over it but the RSI has fallen so low that a brief bounce in the next session or two is likely, with short-covering the main driver. Important to wait for confirmation before entering. BRU also looks promising.