Daytrading May 13 afternoon

Thanks Keyser and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The ASX looks set for a fifth straight winning week despite a second day of falls as a pull-back in the price of crude oil weighed on US equity futures.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 29 points or 0.5% weaker at 5330 but on track to close well above last Friday's close at 5292. The market has put on roughly 400 points over five weeks since the second week of April.

“Global growth remains fragile and uncertainty lingers around the Fed and China,” Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors, told Bloomberg. “However, beyond near-term volatility, we still see shares trending higher this year helped by a combination of relatively attractive valuations, further global monetary easing and continuing moderate global economic growth.”

Caution after a flat close on Wall Street overnight was compounded by weak US equity futures this morning as crude oil sold off. Dow futures were recently down 57 points or 0.32%. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were last off 55 cents or 1.2% at US$46.17 a barrel.

Leading the falls were the gold sector -1.9%, metals & mining -1.9%, materials -1.2% and consumer staples -1.2%. Best of the sectors were utilities +1.2%, consumer discretionary +1% and health +0.4%.

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.07%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.95% and Japan's Nikkei 1.07%.

Gold futures were $3.10 or 0.24% softer at US$1,268.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.97 US cents.


Apologies if the report reads a bit rushed - I spent the morning digging for lithium in my backyard. No luck among the hydrangeas, but the potato patch looks promising. The lithium bandwagon looks pretty crowded after this week, so I figure I better got on-board quick. Anyone got a spare shell? If this week doesn't mark the top of the craze, it's gotta be close. We've had, what, five fresh lithium announcements in two days? The space is getting crowded very quickly. Not that I want it to end - it has made for some fabulous trades and the most lucrative tend to come right before it all goes down in flames. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on the exit once things get this frothy. Trading: missed DKO, nailed PIO, AUQ and ILU. Also took KAI and FGR to no gain so far.