Daytrading October 30 afternoon

Thanks Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market looks set to end a positive month with a fifth straight loss as overnight weakness in commodity prices and tepid bank earnings overshadow hopes for a stimulus surprise in Japan this afternoon.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was trading 37 points or 0.7% lower at 5230 and on track for only its second winning month since February. The benchmark index started the month at 5028 and reached a nine-week high before the start of this week's run of losses.

Deteriorating commodity prices pushed the gold sector down 2.2%, metals & mining 1.8% and materials 1.3%. A  4% post-earnings fall in ANZ dragged the financials sector down 1.1% despite a positive reaction to this mornings report from Macquarie Bank. Energy stocks +1%, health +0.9% and industrials +0.7% bucked the downtrend.

Asian markets eased ahead of this afternoon's Bank of Japan monetary policy statement. China's Shanghai Composite was last off 0.96%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.69% and Japan's Nikkei 0.23%. Dow futures were recently ahead 24 points or more than 0.1%.

“The key question today is the BOJ and whether they will follow the European Central Bank lead in signalling or even delivering further policy stimulus,” Sharon Zollner,a senior economist at ANZ Bank, told Bloomberg. “Further stimulus, or a promise thereof, would alter market dynamics, offsetting the Fed normalisation pulse.”

Crude oil futures pulled back 24 cents this morning to US$45.82 a barrel. Spot gold was 70 cents softer at US$1,146.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 70.98 US cents.


A soggy week, but at least the index respected the 5200 level this morning. Bulls may see this as an attractive entry level, especially if the BOJ moves this arvo. Trading: locked in a modest profit on PLS from yesterday when the rally faltered. Hoped for more from it. Needed two attempts to scrape a win out of RFN. Bounce-traded OBJ. Taken a tentative first dab at EPW, intraday only.