Daytrading March 7 afternoon

Thanks Brit, Jim and morning/pre-market crews.


Half-time round-up:

A recovery in commodity prices helped the ASX hit a two-month high after the Australian dollar reached an eight-month peak over the weekend.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 50 points or 1% ahead at 5140 and on track for a sixth straight advance, the index's longest winning streak of the year. Resource stocks led the rise as crude oil, base metals and iron ore extended recent price gains. The metals & mining sector put on 3.9%, materials 2.9% and energy 2.4%. Also strong were financials +1.3% and the Small Ordinaries +0.4%. Traditional defensive sectors were out of favour, with gold down 0.5%, property trusts 0.4% and utilities 0.2%.

The dollar pared last week's 4.4% rally, dipping almost a third of a cent to 74.11 US cents after China slashed its growth target for the year. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures continued last week's surge, charging 47 cents or 1.3% to US$36.39 a barrel after Friday jobs data confirmed the US economic recovery remains on track.

“Non-farm payrolls for February was a perfect mix of better-than-expected payrolls growth but easing wages growth, which suggested that US activity was proving resilient," Matthew Sherwood, head of investment strategy at Perpetual, told Bloomberg. "But this was not placing upward pressure on wages and inflation, which should keep the Fed on hold at their March policy meeting in two weeks time.”

Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite rallied 1.14% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.7%. Japan's Nikkei gave up 0.32%. Dow futures were recently off 14 points or 0.08%.

Spot gold improved $1.10 this morning to US$1,260.30 an ounce.


Great times for momentum/breakout traders. The market is on a roll and every dog seems to be having its day. 5300 is starting to look achievable on the XJO unless there is a major change in sentiment. No joy for intraday bottom-pickers like myself this morning - when sentiment is this bullish, nothing has fallen back far enough for an entry. Will continue to watch, wait, catch up with correspondence, watch cat videos, etc.