Daytrading October 22 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

Takeover action, upbeat US equity futures and news of improved business conditions helped the ASX pare losses this morning.  

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was trading four points or 0.1% lower at 5244 but on the rise after earlier dipping as low as 5218. The index trimmed its losses after quarterly data from NAB showed conditions for companies appears to be improving. NAB's business conditions index for the three months to September jumped six points to +11. A decline in business confidence to zero from a reading of +4 was indicative of the timing of the survey, NAB said.

"The quarterly survey confirms the trend improvement in current conditions in the non-mining economy, while the outlook is also looking notably better," NAB chief economist Alan Oster told Fairfax. "Lower interest rates and currency depreciation appear to be having the desired effects."

Also helping market sentiment was an unsolicited take-over offer for Santos from a private equity firm. The Santos board rejected the offer from Scepter Partners as "opportunistic".  Shares in the company were lately up 16%, helping the energy sector advance 2.4%. Also trading higher were utilities +0.7%, health +0.5% and property trusts +0.3%. Gold -3.2%, consumer discretionary -1.2% and metals & mining -0.9% were the worst of the sectors.

US futures were boosted by a well-received after-market earnings update from eBay this morning. S&P 500 futures were recently up 5.5 points or 0.27%. China's Shanghai Composite retreated 0.35%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.92% and Japan's Nikkei 0.14%.

Crude oil futures rebounded 17 cents this morning to US$45.37 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.10 softer at US$1,166 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.25 US cents.


Meanwhile, back in the real world, the greatest threat to human happiness for those of us with kids is the news that Lego might run out of bricks this Christmas. When the company gets someone called Roar Trangbaek to make the announcement, you know it must be serious. Roar Trangbaek. That name was made for a trader. Trading: mixed morning. Got something from CLQ and SXL, but probably shouldn't be in SWM and ABU. More optimistic about UGL. Still time for the other two to come good, of course. Missed a pullback entry in ERJ by a pip and stubbornly refused to raise my bid as it took off for the moon. Let that be a lesson to... um... me.