Australian shares nudged a four-week high before falling back to break-even as Asian markets traded mixed ahead of the resumption of US trade tonight.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading a point or less than 0.1% lower at 5511 after earlier hitting 5529, just seven points off the April six-year high. A low-key session saw modest falls in telecoms -0.5%, utilities -0.3% and materials -0.1% balanced by tepid gains in property trusts +0.2%, industrials +0.1% and consumer staples 0.1%.
"We still have a slowing China story out there and I think the government will have to try and provide a bit of support to keep things stable," Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment in New Zealand, told Bloomberg. "People are starting to feel good about the US and the Fed's approach to tapering is as it should be as the market doesn't need QE like it used to."
China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.03%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.07% and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.78%. Dow futures were recently up 42 points or 0.3%.
Crude oil futures bounced 16 cents this morning to US$104.34 a barrel. Spot gold was at US$1,292.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 92.57 US cents.
US futures still look promising, but there is not enough impetus or volume today for a crack at a new high. Perhaps tomorrow if Wall Street plays nice tonight. Better session for me today, thanks to DNA, which is fast becoming a favourite trader due to its liquidity and volatility. Went in hard when it reached $1 then slowly released them into the bounce. Got a few TIS as it pulled back towards support. Wanted ICG at 1.9c but didn't get a fill.
