daytrading nov 13 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

A fourth day of falls pushed Australian shares to a six-week low this morning as Europe delayed bailout money for Greece and domestic business conditions soured.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 45 points or 1% at 4402, a level last seen in early October. The defensive health sector -0.1% and telecoms -0.3% were the best performers as a broad sell-down saw all sectors lose ground. Hardest hit were gold stocks -2.2%, financials -1.3% and metals & mining -1.1%.

European finance chiefs this morning pushed back to November 20 a decision on whether to release more rescue funds to Greece. The meeting agreed to give Greece another two years to get its budget under control but disagreement with the International Monetary Fund over the changed timetable left doubts over whether the IMF will continue to participate in the bailout. Read more here.

The market was already weak before the 11.30am EST release of October data that showed business conditions at their softest in more than three years. NAB's monthly survey had conditions deteriorating to -5 from -3 in September, the weakest reading since May 2009. Business confidence declined to -1 from zero the previous month.

US futures pointed south during a mixed morning in Asia. Shanghai and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both lost 0.54%, while Japan's Nikkei put on 0.14%. Dow futures were recently down 29 points or 0.2%.

Crude oil futures gave up 31 cents this morning to US$85.34 a barrel. Spot gold was $5.40 weaker at US$1,722.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.042.


We're witnessing a real test of the recent market resilience. The prospect of weeks of fiscal cliff uncertainty is shaking a lot of the loose cash out of the market. For the last few weeks this sort of dip has been a buying opportunity, but there seems to be little confidence in the air so far. I've taken speculators in GPT and LYC for any change in sentiment, plus pullback buys in SEH and KEY.