Daytrading September 20 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares ticked lower for a second day with traders reluctant to make large bets following yesterday's technical failures on the ASX and ahead of central bank meetings in the US and Japan this week.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 15 points or 0.3% weaker at 5280, with gains in resource stocks cushioning the market from a deeper loss. The metals & mining sector rose 0.5%, materials 0.4% and health 0.6%. Telecoms was the worst of the sectors, falling 2.5% as investors abandoned TPM following its results presentation.

“No one is prepared to take on too much risk ahead of the Bank of Japan and the Fed Open Market Committee meetings,” Chris Weston, chief market analyst at IG, told Bloomberg. “The key this week for me is how the Japanese and US fixed-income markets react to either central bank decisions. If real bond yields start moving up it will cause a tightening of financial conditions that will not be taken well by the credit or equity markets."  

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission launched an investigation into yesterday's technical breakdown on the ASX, which forced a late start and early close to trade.

"This was a very unfortunate incident yesterday but it's been five years since something like that has happened with the ASX," Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison told Fairfax. "Regardless of that, these things need to be avoided and we need to determine what caused it."

Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.26% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.41%. Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.11%. Dow futures were recently ahead 21 points or 0.12%.

Crude oil futures eased 19 cents or 0.44% this morning to US$43.11 a barrel. Gold futures were $1.50 or 0.11% firmer at US$1,319.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.46 US cents.


Good to get back to normal today, even if conditions (central bank meetings, ASX I.T. woes) don't lend themselves to bullish action. It will take a few days to restore confidence that yesterday's balls-up was a one-off. Commiserations to anyone who was caught out - there but for the grace.... Trading: low-key session so far. Paltry part-fill in MTA at the low. Also took CVO. Would like to be busier.