Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Safe travels, Endless. And remember, as in the share market, there are sharks in the water...
Half-time round-up:
Shares looked likely to end more or less flat for the week after a rout in health stocks helped temper three days of gains on the ASX.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was four points or 0.1% weaker at 5438, four points above where the benchmark index started the week. The health sector was the biggest drag, slumping 2.7% after HSO warned of an unanticipated drop in patient visits. RHC, VRT and SHL were caught in the fallout. Other pockets of weakness included gold -2.2%, IT -0.8% and utilities -1%. Consumer staples rose 0.6% and financials 0.5%.
Overnight, US stocks ticked lower with crude oil as traders continued to fret about next month's presidential election and the possibility of a rate increase in December.
“There’s no shortage of things that will generate volatility,” Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners in New Zealand, told Bloomberg. “But unless something comes out of left field, the Fed will hike in December and that means the [US] economy is on a solid footing and that’s positive.”
China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.06% and Japan's Nikkei 0.18%. Trading on Hong Kong's Hang Seng was suspended as a typhoon closed on the city. Dow futures were recently down 15 points or 0.08%.
Crude oil futures eased 26 cents or 0.51% this morning to US$50.36 a barrel. Gold futures were $1.80 or 0.14% softer at US$1,265.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.35 US cents.
Been a directionless, low-volatility week. Inconclusive so far as next week is concerned. Considering October's reputation as the weakest month of the year, we haven't done badly at all. Trading: can't get my head around the bloated market cap for BEE, but the technicals said today was a bounce-buy, so I choked down my concerns and bought. So far, so good. Won't hang around for last orders.
