Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
Australian stocks surged with US equity futures this morning after the FBI again cleared Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing, raising hopes of a clear result in tomorrow's US presidential election.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 61 points or 1.2% ahead at 5242 and within reach of its first advance in five sessions. The benchmark index shrugged off a weak Friday lead from Wall Street after US futures took off this morning. Dow futures were lately up 201 points or 1.12%. S&P 500 futures gained 25.5 points or 1.21% on the increased likelihood of a Clinton victory tomorrow night.
“The market is viewing the latest Hillary Clinton news as a positive, at least in the short term,” Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust, told
Bloomberg. “It may still be a close call in the end, but the market for the time being is acting as if some of the uncertainty is gone.”
The financial sector steered the market higher with a rise of 2%. Also strong: health +1.3%, IT +1.3% and energy +1.1% as US crude oil futures jumped 37 cents or 0.84% to US$44.44 a barrel. The defensive gold sector slumped 2.8% as gold futures skidded $10.60 or 0.81% to US$1,293.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.81 US cents.
In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.19%, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.47% and Japan's Nikkei 1.23%.
The market likes clarity and is applauding the prospect of a clear win tomorrow. Last thing we want is a repeat of the 2000 Bush-Gore 'hanging chad' fiasco, with legal challenges and weeks of uncertainty. Would be great to see both candidates accept the result with dignity, but... Trading: jumped aboard the AKP rollercoaster several stops early and had to keep buying until my average entry was low enough to enjoy the ride back up. That was a wild one - still getting over the tension headache that came on when it hit the $1300s. Less stressful buying was IAM at 3.9c.
