Thanks Suzie. Half-time round-up:The ASX this morning shrugged...

Thanks Suzie. Half-time round-up:

The ASX this morning shrugged off weak US futures, falls in Asia and a raft of bank downgrades to advance for a third straight day.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 3 points or less than 0.1% at 4105 after earlier falling as low as 4078. Most sectors were trading stronger, led by industrials +0.5% and financials +0.4%. The big miners were both lower following overnight declines in US trade.

US futures soured this morning after Standard & Poor's announced credit downgrades for 15 of the world's biggest banks, including the four largest in the US. The ratings agency said the changes reflected the unlikelihood of government support for banks amid sovereign debt concerns. Dow futures were recently off 41 points or 0.35%.

"The rating cuts may have a negative impact on investor sentiment," the chief fund manager at Resona Bank in Tokyo told Bloomberg. However, "what investors are really paying attention to is whether policy makers are going to take steps to resolve the European debt situation."

Asian markets weakened despite overnight gains in the US and Europe and a larger-than-expected increase in Japanese industrial production. The Nikkei was recently down 0.93%, Shanghai 0.51% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.78%.

The dollar recovered parity this morning as investors continued to move selectively back into risk assets. The dollar was buying US$1.0064.

Business investment surged last quarter but house prices continued to decline. Business investment increased by 12.3%, its biggest rise in more than four years and well ahead of the 8% median market forecast. Capital city home prices sagged another 0.5% last month, following a downwardly-revised 0.4% decline in September.

Crude oil futures eased 37 cents this morning to US$99.51 a barrel. Spot gold was $8.30 stronger at US$1,725.20 an ounce.


Interesting to see how many "coiled springs" there are in the market at present - plenty of shares in a holding pattern ready to break one way or the other, depending on market sentiment. I'm thinking of mid-caps like AMP, SUN, CSR, BBG, TSE, BLD and ILU. Hopefully they will follow the likes of TOL, BKN, BLY and IRE. In the meantime I'd been waiting for a pullback in GCN and had two solid profitable trades in it this morning. Nice wins but could have been better with more patience.