daytrading sep 11 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks retreated this morning but fared better than Asian markets as risk appetite paled ahead of tomorrow's European bailout court decision and Thursday's US Federal Reserve statement.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was six points or 0.2% weaker at 4327 with all sectors losing ground except health (+1.2%). The metals & mining sector eased 0.2% despite yesterday's 6.7% jump in the price of iron ore.

"Iron ore had a reasonable run last night but [that] had been priced into yesterday's movement for the big miners BHP and Rio yesterday," Cameron Securities client adviser Adrian Leppinus told Fairfax.

US futures retreated as Asian markets curbed three days of gains. Shanghai fell 0.85%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.58% and Japan's Nikkei 0.82%. Dow futures were recently down 24 points or 0.2%.

"There's still a lot of uncertainty around the implementation of policy in Europe," Stephen Halmarick, head of investment markets research at Colonial First State Global Asset Management, told Bloomberg. "The German constitutional court ruling on {Europe's bailout funds] is obviously a key risk over the next few days and there's talk about Greece struggling to come out with budget cuts."

Business confidence sagged last month as falling commodity prices caused a big swing in mining sentiment. The overall reading dropped five points from +3 in July to -2 in August as confidence among miners plummeted 14 points to -13. Business conditions offered a brighter view of the economy, improving by four points from -3 in July to +1 in August.

Crude oil futures edged up 14 cents this morning to US$96.40 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.90 firmer at US$1,730.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0348.


Another fairly directionless morning - no rush for the exits but nor is there much enthusiasm for buying. Apart from BRW, of course. Well done to that winners there. That was the easy way to get rich this morning. But like Andy Murray, I took the hard way, grinding out points in a dour, defensive three-hour struggle that had the crowd questioning whether I had what it takes to break Britain's 76-year wait for a champion at day trading. I remain on track, thanks to scrambled wins in SWM, BYL and TOX. New balls please.