daytrading nov 1 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The share market retreated for a second day before paring losses as China' manufacturing sector heated up and Macquarie Group led a rally in financials.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 10 points or 0.2% in the red at 5415 after falling as low as 5405 by mid-morning. Financials +0.2% was the best of the sectors after Macquarie Group announced 39% jump in first-half profits. Overnight declines in commodity prices helped push the gold sector down 2.7%, materials 0.8% and energy 0.2%.

"The rally is running out of support in the short term and the fact the technical level of 5426 hasn't been clearly broken gives me even more reason to believe a pause is coming," IG analyst Evan Lucas told Fairfax. "I think it will be a short three to four week pull-back as the banks turn ex-dividend and money managers assess where their next total return is coming from. Don't be surprised to see the ASX back into mid-5300 come mid-November."

The market seemed little moved by a pick-up in Chinese factory activity to its strongest level since August 2012. The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index improved to 51.4 last month from 51.2 in September. Earlier, the Australian October manufacturing report showed an improvement to 53.2 from 51.7 in September.

China's Shanghai Composite was lately off 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.06% and Japan's Nikkei 0.45%. Dow futures were up 29 points or 0.2%.

Crude oil futures bounced seven cents this morning to US$96.32 a barrel. Spot gold was 40 cents weaker at US$1,323.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 94.69 US cents.


Not much love for the market this morning. Bullish US futures and a positive Chinese factory report would normally be good for a few points, but it ain't happening. I had one of those mornings with some decent wins but enough losses to take the edge off. AGI bounced beautifully off support and GGG went on with it from yesterday. BRL stalled. Quick bounce profit in SMA but SXL and AQO are being stubborn.