Daytrading October 26 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Thanks also for the good will shown by all thumbs this time yesterday - I'm humbled.


Half-time round-up:

Shares hit a five-week low after a jump in inflation dampened hopes of further rate cuts, and a poorly-received after-market earnings update from Apple cast a pall over US equity futures.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 82 points or 1.5% weaker at 5361 as traders dumped consumer stocks. The consumer staples sector dived 2.9% after WES sold off on concerns about slowing sales at Coles. Also weak were energy -2.3%, consumer discretionary -2.3% and industrials -2.3%. The gold sector rallied 0.5%.

The session began under a cloud after Apple retreated 2.8% in after-market trade after the world's largest company this morning confirmed annual revenue decline for the first time in 15 years. Read more here. The report helped drag Dow futures down 44 points or 0.24% and Nasdaq futures 16.25 points or 0.33%.

The headwinds increased for the domestic market with the 11.30am EST release of data showing headline consumer inflation increased by 0.7% last quarter, boosting the annual rate to 1.3% from 1%. The news pushed the dollar up more than half a cent to 76.91 US cents and the odds on a rate cut next month down from 16% to 4%.

"The RBA will see today's pick-up in quarterly inflation as a net positive from record low rates of 1.5 per cent, so this pushes any concerns of further easing [of rates] well back into 2017," ThinkMarkets senior market analyst Matt Simpson told Fairfax.

China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.19%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.91% and Japan's Nikkei 0.14%.

Crude oil futures declined a further 58 cents or 1.16% this morning to US$49.38 a barrel. Gold futures improved $1.20 or 0.09% to US$1,274.80 an ounce.


Ugly double whammy this morning from Apple and the CPI. Market hoped for more rate cuts. Consumer stocks bearing the brunt. The sheer weight of the selling confirms in my mind that there is a downward bias to the market right now, despite yesterday's bullish counter-trend rise. Lower lows, lower highs. Be good to get a washout and reversal. Trading: with all due respect to the tragic events at Dreamworld, AAD opened oversold and was a clear buy. 20% was simply too great a discount and the market quickly recalibrated. Traded the temporary bounce in HVN. Also got a pip from SAS and took a speculator in TSN.