daytrading nov 21 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The share market extended this week's losing run into a fourth day after a report showed growth in Chinese manufacturing slowed this month.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 12 points or 0.2% at 5294, the first session the index has traded below 5300 since mid-October. Gold stocks led the retreat, tumbling 3.9% after the price of the metal slumped overnight as the US Federal Reserve hinted at a reduction in stimulus spending. Energy stocks +0.5%, health +0.3% and utilities +0.2% were the only sectors to record gains.

"There's a feeling around that the Fed is starting to see the cost of ongoing quantitative easing mounting," Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP, told Bloomberg. "The market is still feeling very twitchy about it."

HSBC's preliminary manufacturing purchasing managers' index, released at 12.40pm EST, slowed this month to 50.4 from a reading of 50.9 in October. The reading was the weakest in three months.

China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.91% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.55%. Japan's Nikkei jumped 1.59% as exporters benefitted from a weaker yen. Dow futures were recently down seven points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures slipped six cents this morning to US$93.62 a barrel. Spot gold bounced $3.20 to US$1,247.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 93.04 US cents.



No seventh cavalry today - first time in a while that Chinese economic data have disappointed. Market can't take a trick this week. Never a good sign when UNS looks like the pick of the trades. I hoped for a few buys this morning on the initial weakness but managed just half a pip in SBM. FAS coming good from yesterday. Watching OGY. Missed quite a few others.