Daytrading November 9 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares pulled back with US equity futures in jittery trade as early returns in key states failed to clarify who will win the race for the White House.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 15 points or 0.3% lower at 5243 in response to mixed signals from the US presidential election. The index had been up as much as 48 points and down as much as 19 points as Donald Trump made headway. The latest polling has Trump ahead 66-48 in the overall electoral account but losing in three out of four key states. The ASX experienced a 50-point swing as Clinton temporarily moved ahead in Florida, only to cede ground in recent returns.

“We’re being thrown this way and that over the voting results,” Tomoichiro Kubota, senior analyst at Matsui Securities in Japan, told Bloomberg. “Overall, the market has priced in a Hillary victory by about 80 to 90 percent. If Trump wins, we can’t deny the possibility of wild moves.”

After being ahead roughly 60 points, Dow futures were recently down 20 points or 0.11%. Clinton is broadly seen as the more Wall Street-friendly of the two candidates and less of an unknown quantity. China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.17%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.97% and Japan's Nikkei pared strong early gains to 0.09%.

Crude oil futures eased 18 cents or 0.4% this morning to US$44.82 a barrel. Gold futures were $4 or 0.31% stronger at US$1,278.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.56 US cents.


An entertaining morning for election-watchers, but if there were trading opportunities I've largely missed them. The political uncertainty is not moving far enough down the foodchain. Had a dabble in EWC. The gap opens in the likes of SMA and SUD were a little too wide for my risk tolerance.