daytrading nov 28 afternoon

Thanks Suzie. Endless, hope the R&R is helping. Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks have staged their biggest rally in more than three weeks as Asian markets and US futures welcome IMF action on Europe and record US Thanksgiving retail sales.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 78 points or nearly 2% at 4062 and on track to smash a six-day losing run that has stripped more than 270 points from the benchmark index. All sectors were trading higher, led by a 3% jump in financials following reports that the International Monetary Fund is preparing a loan to support Italy until its austerity program takes effect.

"This is just one more bullet that's added to the arsenal for solutions on the European crisis," the head of asset allocation at Nikko Asset Management told Bloomberg. "There's a lot of good things going on that's not recognised by the market right now. It's not all bad news out there."

US futures were pointing to a strong start to the trading week after record "Black Friday" retail sales. Dow futures were recently up 193 points or 1.7%.

Asian markets advanced for the first session in four. Japan's Nikkei put on 1.9%, Shanghai 0.16% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.78%.

Renewed appetite for risk was underlined by surges in oil and the Australian dollar. Crude oil futures rallied $1.04 this morning to US$98.36 a barrel. The dollar was buying 98.55 US cents. Gold, which recently has been trading more like a risk asset, also caught the tailwind. Spot gold was ahead $26.40 at US$1,706.70 an ounce.


Had to include the Bloomberg quote above in honour of 64eheh, who could have written that himself. I must commend Poly for his market calls lately - don't know anyone who does it better. Mate, you make me feel like a rank amateur some days. I've been adding a few short-term holds in expectation of this relief rally but bought too early and will need at least another session like today to see the benefits. Let's hope there's another two or three days in this. In the meantime, I scalped EXS and TIS this morning for a day's wage.