Thanks Brit and morning crew. Half-time round-up: Australian...

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares retreated for a second day as rising geopolitical tensions sapped risk appetite ahead of a public holiday in the US.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 25 points or 0.5% weaker at 5201 as a tepid bounce in resource stocks was outweighed by losses in other sectors. The gold sector advanced 2%, metals & mining 0.3% and energy 0.2%. Major falls included consumer staples -1.4%, property trusts -1% and financials -0.5%.

“Escalation in recent terror attacks and now the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey are raising concerns of the possible unforeseen spillover impacts of Middle East conflicts,” Con Williams, rural economist at ANZ Bank New Zealand, told Bloomberg. “The accumulation of these events is now beginning to have an influence on global markets.”

While China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.13%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.42% and Japan's Nikkei 0.46%. Dow futures were recently off 15 points or almost 0.1%. ahead of tonight's session, the last before the Thanksgiving market holiday and a shortened session on Friday.

Crude oil futures eased 20 cents this morning to US$42.67 a barrel. Spot gold firmed another $4.50 to US$1,078.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.63 US cents.


Today's day trader's lament: NTC handed me my nastiest loss in the last month when I was stopped out three weeks ago. My buy price was $1.47 and I sold for a lot less. Today it hit $3.67. It's all in the timing, folks. Speaking of which, the oversold indicators are flashing so hard on AGI that I thought the shorts might use today's announcement to cover. Not so far. Been waiting patiently for ODN - also not so far. CVE maybe when the gap closes?