Thanks Brit and morning regulars.
Half-time round-up:
The share market looks set to end the best week on world markets in three years with five wins out of five after US equity futures shrugged off a disappointing earnings update from Alcoa.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 47 points or 0.9% ahead at 5258 after earlier hitting 5284, the index's highest level since late August. The MSCI All Country World Index has rallied 3.9% this week, the gauge's strongest weekly performance since 2012, amid speculation that soft US jobs data on Friday snuffed out any chance rates will rise this year.
“This looks like a sustainable turnaround,” Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, told
Bloomberg. “Investors have become less pessimistic. Things are definitely not in a strong economic environment but there is an expectation of further central bank support.”
The metals & mining sector led the rally, as it has all week, lately up 2.2%. The gold sector was up 1.9%, materials 1.8%, energy 1.4% and utilities 1.4%.
US equity futures were pushed mildly lower by a disappointing quarterly profit update from Alcoa this morning. Dow futures were recently down six points or less than 0.1%. Shares in Alcoa slumped 5.09% in after-market trade after the company announced a sharp decline in profits exacerbated by weak aluminium prices and a rising greenback.
China's Shanghai Composite was last up 0.38%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.53% and Japan's Nikkei 0.7%.
Crude oil futures rallied 19 cents this morning to US$49.62 a barrel. Spot gold was flat at US$1,142.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.66 US cents.
Happy days. The market mood has switched from gloom to tentative optimism. Volumes haven't been great (public holiday on Monday) but have risen steadily as the week progressed. Kinda wish I'd held on to the BHP shares I bought on Sep 29 for longer than a day. The trader's lament. Trading: tale of two trades for me this morning - a wildly successful buy in BKL and a wildly unsuccessful buy in SOR. Guess which one I'm still holding. Yep. Trading is a war with your weaknesses and mine were on display with those two decisions. Capped the profit in one, let the loss run in the other. Wrong wrong wrong.
