Thanks Brit and morning crew. Half-time round-up: The share...

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market reached the halfway mark of the session within reach of its longest weekly winning run in two and a half years.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 26 points or 0.5% ahead at 5414 and on track for a seventh straight weekly advance for the first time since September 2013. The index has ground higher each week since the Federal Reserve surprised the market with a rate cut in mid-April and hinted at more to come. This morning's gains came despite increasing caution among commentators as US stocks hover near record levels.

“The market is ahead of itself with this move over the last couple of days in light of the data,” Phil Orlando, chief equity-market strategist at Federated Investors in the US, told Bloomberg. “First-quarter earnings were terrible and you’ve got the prospect of a bad Brexit vote a week after the Fed - there’s a whole bunch of stuff that’s right in front of us that could go either way.”

Consumer staples led this morning's advance, gaining 1.1% as WES rebounded. Also strong were utilities +1%, IT +1% and financials +0.8%. Gold lost 2.4% and metals & mining 1.1%.

Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.15% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.35%. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.44%. Dow futures were unchanged.

Crude oil futures eased 31 cents or 0.6% this morning to US$49.17 a barrel. Gold futures were $7 or 0.6% weaker at US$1,215.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.25 US cents.


Trading: there's snow due up here on the weekend and the parts of the market I follow seem frozen already. Second day I've struggled to find bouncers. Got a piddling part-fill in SYA. Bring on the weekend. Memorial Day market holiday in the US on Monday, so we may be in for a slow start next week. Bring a good book.