Thanks Gttrain - appreciate the late stand-in. Half-time...

Thanks Gttrain - appreciate the late stand-in.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares marched to their own beat this morning, advancing for a second day despite falls on Asian markets, negative US futures and soft housing news.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 14 points or 0.3% ahead at 4488, led by the big banks and some of the defensive sectors. Utilities -0.3%, the Small Ords -0.2% and materials -0.1% were among the notable declining sectors. The gains came on below-average volume with Victoria enjoying a public holiday and the rest of the country looking ahead to this afternoon's Melbourne Cup and Reserve Bank rate decision.

"The volumes recently have been pretty modest anyway so I suspect that today they are going to be super modest," RBS Morgans equities director Bill Chatterton told Fairfax. "I don't think there is going to be a whole lot happening, it is going to be focused on horses running the track and people having a bit of fun."

Asian markets back-pedalled as traders await the outcome of elections tonight in the US and this week's leadership transition in China. Shanghai fell 0.37%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.27% and Japan's Nikkei 0.28%. Dow futures were recently down 11 points or 0.1%.

Recent rate cuts did little for capital-city house prices, which inched up just 0.3% last quarter, well below expectations for a rise of 1%. The increase represented anaemic year-on-year price growth of 0.3%.

"The Reserve Bank cutting interest rates has removed some of the downward pressure from the housing market," Macquarie economist Brian Redican told Fairfax [link above]. "But without investors coming back and looking to re-gear, and indeed with banks reluctant to lend, I don't think you're going to get the very strong increases you'd typically have when the Reserve Bank cuts interest rates significantly."

Crude oil futures retreated 20 cents this morning to US$85.62 a barrel. Spot gold was flat at US$1,684.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0376.


The ASX has been unusually independently minded since last Thursday's plunge, paying minimal heed to movements elsewhere. It won't last but it's been interesting to observe. As usual, I've been buying weakness this morning but none of the buys have come to fruition yet. Looking for recoveries this arvo in CNO, AWC and another that I won't mention because Endless will beat me up and the share's doing a pretty good job of that already.