Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Thanks also to Shants for sterling work in this slot last week. Sorry to put out the begging bowl so soon, Shants, but any chance you could stand in again tomorrow? I'm on parenting duty for the day.
Half-time round-up:
The share market launched a new quarter with a push to a four-week high after Wall Street was boosted by reports that troubled Deutsche Bank is near to a deal with US regulators.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 47 points or 0.9% ahead at 5483 on low, holiday-affected volume. With trading subdued by the Labour Day public holiday in much of the country, the financials sector staged a 1.2% relief rally after Agence France-Presse reported that Deutsche Bank was close to settling a dispute with the US Department of Justice for less than half the figure first reported. The news eased fears of a fresh global banking crisis.
“Investors were nervous about the uncertainty surrounding Deutsche Bank and the potential spillover effect on other European banks, but the mood is to take a wait-and-see approach for now,” Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities in Japan, told Bloomberg.
Other sectors to fare well this morning were energy +1.1%, metals & mining +1.2% and consumer discretionary +1.2%. Health -0.1% was the only sector to miss the updraught.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.59% and Japan's Nikkei 1.16%. China's Shanghai Composite was closed for a public holiday. Dow futures were recently 21 points or 0.12% firmer.
Crude oil futures dipped 25 cents or 0.52% this morning to US$47.99 a barrel. Gold futures were $4.80 or 0.38% stronger at US$1,321.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.53 US cents.
The market is looking chipper. XJO has 5500 in its sights after a 300-point turnaround from the low three weeks ago. The headwinds will get stronger shortly. Resistance looks likely from around the 5550/5600 area. Trading: scraped a profit out of MEP and just went in hard on SYT.
