Daytrading May 7 afternoon

Thanks Scarface and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

Shares stumbled to a fresh three-month low this morning before staging a partial rebound as the banks recovered from news of a $5.5 billion rights issue at NAB.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 46 points or 0.8% lower at 5646 after recouping almost half its losses since hitting an early low at 5607. The financials sector opened deep in the red as institutional investors freed up funds to put into NAB's fund raising, but the sector had lately trimmed its fall to 0.5%. Other notable declines included gold -1.9%, property trusts -1.7%, consumer discretionary -1.6%, consumer staples -1.6% and industrials -1.1%.

The market shrugged off news that the jobless rate ticked back up to 6.2% last month, as expected, from 6.1% in March. The rise came as the economy shed 2,900 jobs, a weaker result than the 3,500-4,000 gain anticipated by economists. The dollar was lately buying 79.9 US cents, a fifth of a cent higher than first thing this morning.

Asian markets continued to retreat. China's Shanghai Composite was last off 1.51%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.53% and Japan's Nikkei 1.03%. Dow futures were ahead by 18 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures eased 57 cents this morning to US$60.36 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.30 softer at US$1,188 an ounce.


Choppy old morning. For a while there it looked like we were on for a straight-forward 'buy and hold' bounce, but the instos are not letting us off that lightly. It's a real trader's market - buy low and don't get ambitious. Thought I took profits on DMP too early - turned out not a moment too soon. Got back in more recently towards $37. Was shaken out of WHC - they got me good there. Withstood a full retrace on TAH before exiting well on the second bounce. Still in GPT but given on the hope it fills the gap. Succession of near misses in DCC, OGY, SHE, SFR, PRA and a few other thread heroes. Keep ducking and diving.