Thanks Endless. Welcome back Poly - you've been missed.
Half-time round-up:
Shares plumbed a three-week low this morning as an improvement in consumer sentiment was overshadowed by weakness in the dollar, resources and US equities.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 37 points or 0.7% weaker at 5356 after touching 5352 earlier in the session. IT +1.2% was the only sector to record a gain. Gold stocks -1.9%, energy -1.1% and financials -0.9% took the heaviest hits amid speculation that the US Federal Reserve may tighten monetary policy at next month's meeting.
"Last week, we had a reasonably strong payrolls numbers, which people have interpreted as a sign that the Fed might taper in December," Credit Suisse equity strategist Damien Boey told Fairfax. "We've had a lot of speeches from different Fed officials saying that they wouldn't rule out a December taper... It kind of reads that they are looking for any reason at this stage to justify tapering."
The market briefly pared its losses following the 10.30am EST release of consumer sentiment data. The WBC-MI consumer sentiment index improved by 1.9% this month from October as house prices continued to rise.
US futures deteriorated as Asian markets followed Wall Street lower. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.76%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.36% and Japan's Nikkei 0.45%. Dow futures were recently off 20 points or more than 0.1%.
Spot gold bounced $2.30 this morning to US$1,270.80 an ounce. Crude oil futures edged up five cents to US$93.18 a barrel. The dollar was buying 93.06 US cents.
The PSY rally looks like a fair indicator of an over-heating market. That's not to take anything away from those who have done well from it - I doff my cap - but it smells like another signal that we are near a short-term market top. I did the fib calculations this morning in preparation for the pullback but concluded they were meaningless when a share has risen that fast in just three sessions. Been a fruitful morning elsewhere with bounce profits locked away in PAB, SEN, EHL and BCC. Also took IAG - an occasional intraday swinger offering small profits with minimal risk - and recently AIO.
