Daytrading November 19 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A third straight advance pushed the ASX 200's three-day gain beyond 200 points ahead of market heavyweight BHP's AGM this afternoon.

At 1pm EST the benchmark index was trading 80 points or 1.6% higher at 5213 after earlier pushing as high as 5217, extending its recovery since Monday's six-week closing low to more than 210 points or 4.2%. A broad rally lifted all sectors. The morning's best returns were in gold +3.9%, metals & mining +3% and consumer staples +2%. BHP was up 2.7% from yesterday's seven-year low as its AGM got underway in Perth.

Asian markets took their cues from a strong session on Wall Street overnight after the minutes from the October Federal Reserve meeting indicated the board is ready to raise its target rate next month. China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.23% and Japan's Nikkei 1.52%. Dow futures were recently up 24 points or more than 0.1%.

“The pace of the rise is what’s much more important than the [US] rate rise itself,” Angus Gluskie, managing director at White Funds Management, told Bloomberg. “If a rise occurs slowly then markets, investors and consumers all have time to respond to it and adjust accordingly. That’s the ideal circumstance and that’s certainly what the Fed is trying to achieve.”

Crude oil futures lifted 22 cents this morning to US$40.97 a barrel. Spot gold was $7.50 stronger at US$1,077.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.6 US cents.


Good to see the index putting plenty of space between here and the 5000 level. The outlook now is a lot brighter than it was on Monday. Let's hope BHP has some good news at this arvo's AGM. On a side-note, gold seems to be on the charge. Trading: got a pip out of DVI and a few out of a pygmy trade in 3DM, but mucked up the session with a premature buy in PGH. Careless and likely to cost me a bit today. Tentative dabble in NOR.