daytrading may 14 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The Australian share market gave up most of its early gains this morning as fresh stimulus measures in China failed to inspire Asian markets.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead two points or less than 0.1% at 4287 after earlier running as high as 4304. There were few standout sectors as investors favoured defensives such as telecoms and utilities over cyclicals. The gold sector was hit hardest, falling 1.3%. The Small Ordinaries fell 0.4%.

US futures flagged as the benchmark indexes in Asia rolled over. Dow futures were recently down down 29 points or 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.01%, Shanghai fell 0.09% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.05%.

The dollar briefly dipped below parity with the US dollar this morning as Greece's failure to form a government and China's recent run of deteriorating economic data sapped risk appetite. The dollar was lately buying US$1.001 after touching 99.96 US cents, its weakest level since December.

"It has really continued this two-month process of the Aussie dropping by around 8%," Perpetual Investments head of investment market research Matt Sherwood told Fairfax. "We are expecting it to fall through parity over the next week, as these Europe concerns continue to bite the market."

Home loans improved in March partly reversing a slump in February. ABS statistics showed an increase of 0.3% following a 2.5% decline in February.

Crude oil futures dropped another 79 cents this morning to US$95.34 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.90 stronger at US$1,581.80 an ounce.


Didn't take long for the enthusiasm for China's stimulus move to wear off. The market appears to be more concerned about Greece's political deadlock and the danger that there will have to be new elections. A scratchy start to the week at this trading desk - got a few CPL away at the top of the recent trading range but still have a few left. Squeezed a few pips out of SLR from the low. Watching for possible re-entry. Also watching SXY near support. Otherwise struggling for ideas.