Daytrading September 1 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

News of a pick-up in Chinese factory activity helped the ASX pare initial falls after deteriorating commodity prices pressured mining stocks.  

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 15 points or 0.3% weaker at 5418 after earlier hitting a fresh six-week low at 5406. The market trimmed its fall on news that China's official manufacturing gauge surged to an unexpected two-year high last month. The purchasing managers' index rose to 50.4 from a July reading of 49.9. Economists had predicted a modest decline to 49.8. A rival private gauge was notably weaker. Read more here.

A mixed morning in Australia saw gains in IT +1%, telecoms +0.4% and financials +0.3% outweighed by declines in metals & mining -2.1% as market heavyweight BHP traded without its dividend, energy -1.7% and gold -1.3%.

“As markets move out of the [northern hemisphere] holiday period into September, there is growing chatter that volatility may pick up in the short term, possibly led by a selloff in equities,” David Croy, senior rates strategist at ANZ Bank New Zealand, told Bloomberg. “For commodity markets and stocks, September’s OPEC meeting will be important given that OPEC’s August production is likely to have reached a high.”

Crude oil futures bounced 18 cents or 0.4% this morning to US$44.88 a barrel. Gold futures were $2.60 or 0.2% firmer at US$1,314 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.44 US cents.

China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.23%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei both gained 0.13%. Dow futures were recently ahead 24 points or 0.13%.


Interesting Chinese factory number - first sign that government stimulus efforts are having an effect? Ought to be a plus for commodity prices, but for now they're all about the greenback. September tends to be weak for equities. XJO has been in a nice uptrend since January and has quite a bit of room below if Wall Street falls out of bed. Trading: another tricky session. Got some pips out of EHL. Should have traded the bounce in TGS.