Thanks Endless. Great to see Exit back - a former stalwart of the thread and a very smart trader. I've asked after your whereabouts several times here, buddy. Glad all is well.
Half-time round-up:
A strong production report from BHP helped the share market extend its bull run into a sixth session despite modest losses on Asian markets and soft US futures.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 19 points or 0.35% ahead at 5370 with a 2.5% rise in BHP accounting for much of the rise. The global mining giant this morning reported a 23% increase in iron ore output last quarter from the same period last year.
BHP's share rally drove the metals & mining sector up 1.7% for the best sector performance of the morning. Other notable gains included financials +0.3%, utilities +0.6% and the Small Ords +0.3%. Energy, health and consumer stocks lost ground.
"It's a good environment for equities because tapering expectations have been pushed out to next year," Sean Fenton, fund manager at Tribeca Investment Partners, told Bloomberg. "Growth in the US is steady without being spectacular so the support remains from the Fed, with very easy monetary conditions."
US futures were mildly bearish following a flat close to share trade overnight. Dow futures were recently off 17 points or 0.1%. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.31%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.69% and Japan's Nikkei 0.19%.
Crude oil futures were lately down another 17 cents for the morning at US$99.04 a barrel after falling as low as US$98.85. Spot gold was 50 cents weaker at US$1,315.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 96.53 US cents.
A lot of falling stars this morning. Good time to sort out your fib retracement levels for potential bounces. I had a win in MNZ and a first dab at HTA. Also bought DJS when the loss-of-CEO sell-off looked overdone. Timbo makes a fair point about cost of living in Sydney. That was one of the reasons I moved to the bush a few years ago - reduced the mortgage burden and freed up capital for trading. Plus it's a damn fine place to live outside of bushfire season.
