Thanks Endless. Best of luck with the operation, buddy....

Thanks Endless. Best of luck with the operation, buddy.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares set a new seven-week low this morning before a mid-morning rally as this month's trading volumes neared GFC levels.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 11 points or 0.3% at 4061 as gains in financials, materials and property trusts offset falls in industrials, gold and defensive sectors.

Goldman Sachs this morning warned that turnover on the ASX has dropped "to almost three-year lows on the euro crisis", according to Fairfax. Goldman said the value of trades for the first half of this month was the weakest since March 2009.

Asian markets retreated as Japan played catch-up following yesterday's public holiday and an earthquake off the coast of Honshu this morning. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.31%, Shanghai 0.68% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.43%. Dow futures were ahead 22 points or 0.2% ahead of tonight's Thanksgiving public holiday.

The falls followed sharp falls on Wall Street overnight after Germany failed to find buyers for 35% of bonds put to auction. The result raised fears that Europe's debt crisis is infecting even the safest members of the euro-zone.

"The market has finally realised that Germany has a high level of public debt," Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors told Bloomberg. "Germany looks to be losing its safe-haven status, and it highlights the extent to which the European debt crisis has deteriorated. It can be only bad news for risky assets like equities."

Crude oil futures eased 38 cents this morning to US$95.76 a barrel. Spot gold was 70 cents softer at US$1,6893 an ounce. The dollar was buying 97.24 US cents.


A glimmer of hope near the end of a tough week. Another sign that this market will rally if the endless flow of bad news pauses long enough. Losing day for me yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks and today will be the same if BBG has anything to do with it. I expected some weakness after the DJS and US consumer spending news but 50 points looks overdone. In for quite a few. Scalped AGI and JKA this morning, still holding MOL from the lows.