Daytrading September 9 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning regulars. (Everything okay out there, Brit?)


Half-time round-up:

A strong morning on Asian markets helped Australian stocks kick higher despite weak consumer confidence data and market heavyweights BHP and Woolworths trading ex-dividend.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 90 points or 1.8% ahead at 5205 and on course for its strongest close in more than a week. The big banks spearheaded the rally, lifting the financials sector 3.1%. Also strong were telecoms +1.8%, consumer discretionary +1.8% and energy +1.2%. The consumer staples sector rose 0.5% as WOW traded without its dividend. The metals & mining sector improved 0.6% as a 2.4% rise in Rio Tinto offset a 1.2% post-dividend decline in BHP.

The market mood was buoyant as Japanese shares jumped more than 5.5% and China's benchmark index rallied for a second day. The Nikkei was lately up 5.56%, the Shanghai Composite 2.21% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 2.74%. Dow futures were recently ahead 95 points or 0.6%.

“As long as China is stable and equity markets there aren’t in free fall, markets will generally go higher,” Chris Weston, chief markets strategist at IG, told Bloomberg. But "we won’t rule out more volatility ahead of the US [Federal Reserve rates] meeting next week.”

Back home, consumer sentiment declined 5.6% this month as the dollar slumped amid fears of a global economic slowdown and stock market correction. The WBC-MI index fell to 93.9 from 99.5 last month.

Crude oil futures bounced 19 cents this morning to US$46.13 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.50 stronger at US$1,124.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 70.58 US cents.


Looks like the market is ready to discount China as an issue and turn its intention back to the Fed. How that plays out, we won't know until next Wednesday night. Plenty of time meantime for markets to move higher. Thought we might see a bit of weakness in the XJO at the high today, but no evidence of that so far. Trading: another slim day for opportunities, but I nailed a good one (for my approach at least) in MNS. In near the low, out for a few pips minutes later. Enough in it to make up for yesterday's tradeless session.