DT Feb 8 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares edged positive for the week after another low-volatility session in the US overnight.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 14 points or 0.25% stronger at 5636, hinting at a second day of modest gains after US stocks closed little changed. Advances in IT +1.8%, financials +0.7% and consumer discretionary +0.6% were tempered by declines in gold stocks -0.9%, utilities -1.2% and energy -0.7%.

"Another night of very low volatility, highlighted with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices trading in a nine and 87-point range respectively," IG strategist Chris Weston told Fairfax. "This is great for longer-term investors who don't like to look at daily market gyrations, but it is obviously frustrating for the short-term traders out there... The fact is implied volatility is super low and traders don't see much to derail that at present."

China's Shanghai Composite retreated 0.29%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.51% and Japan's Nikkei 0.02%. Dow futures were off nine points or 0.04%.

Crude oil futures dived 64 cents or 1.23% this morning to US$51.23 a barrel following news of an unexpectedly large increase in US stockpiles last week. Gold futures fell 30 cents or 0.02% to US$1,235.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.25 US cents.


Trading: pretty turgid morning, reflecting the current unnaturally low level of volatility. Was grateful to get a few rebound pips out of TND. Other than that: crickets. Thanks to all for the supportive comments yesterday. Son on the mend, but it's going to be months.