Daytrading Sep 10 afternoon

Thanks Haplo and regulars.

Half-time round-up:

A sharp downturn in consumer sentiment added to pressures on Australian shares as they followed regional markets lower this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 41 points or 0.7% lower at 5567 and on track for a three-week closing low. Gold +0.9% was the only sector to rise. A long list of declines was topped by property trusts -1.6%, consumer staples -1.3% and telecoms -1.2%. The declines came after Wall Street was rattled by research showing the Federal Reserve is mor bearish on interest rates than investors.

“It’s going to be harder for the market to climb as it’s gone up pretty quickly,” Keith Poore, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors in New Zealand, told Bloomberg. “Investors are shifting their focus towards the end of quantitative easing and the commencement of interest rate hikes by the Fed. If they tighten prematurely, the global economy could slide back into recession but I don’t think they would.”

The downbeat market mood was compounded by news that consumer sentiment unexpectedly deteriorated this month. The MI/WBC index slumped a seasonally-adjusted 4.6% to 94 this month, reversing a 3.8% improvement last month.

"This is a surprising and disappointing result," Westpac chief economist Bill Evans told Fairfax.

The dollar took a few hours to react but lately dropped more than a quarter of a cent to a six-month low. The Aussie was buying 91.77 US cents.

Asian markets took their cues from Wall Street's worst night in five weeks. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.38%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.64% and Japan's Nikkei 0.36%. Dow futures were recently down 24 points or more than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures rallied 21 cents this morning to US$92.97 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.20 weaker at US$1,255 an ounce.


There were a few runners this morning but it felt like there should have been more opportunities than I spotted, particularly pullbacks. Got half a day's wage out of ELM and should get a decent payday out of an illiquid buy from yesterday. I'm discovering that the problem with buying 'sleeper' stocks is that a lot of them seem... well... sleepy. Who'd a thunk it? Can't tell if the market is especially slow just now or if it's staring at a bunch of somnambulists that makes it seem that way. Patience, laddie. Will have to learn to be more Zen about this. Ommm.... Ommm...