Daytrading October 18 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A rebound in crude oil and other commodities as the US dollar retreated helped Australian equities rally for the first time in five sessions.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 26 points or 0.5% higher at 5414, with the gold sector +2.6% and metals & mining +0.7% among those leading the way. Utilities gained 0.6%, health 0.8% and financials 0.5%.

Resource stocks were boosted by a retrace by the greenback from yesterday's seven-month peak after tepid economic data overnight dulled the case for a rate rise in December. The Australian dollar was lately buying 76.67 US cents, up more than three-quarters of a cent from yesterday.

Crude oil futures rose 25 cents or 0.5% to US$50.19 a barrel. US equity futures rallied with crude. Dow futures were recently ahead 32 points or 0.18%.

China's Shanghai Composite improved 0.05%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.58% and Japan's Nikkei 0.17%. Gold futures were $4.70 or 0.37% firmer at US$1,261.30 an ounce.


Another good, busy session, helped by a steady improvement on the index as the big money rotates out of the greenback into equities, commodities, etc. Bodes well for tonight? Trading: missed LBT but got scalps out of AHZ, RFT and CLQ. Curse of the part-fills in MEB and ABX. Feeling sharp and up for it this week - sometimes forget what a difference the mental side of the trading game makes to your returns. Easy to get stale. Probably been guilty of that this year.