The ASX resumed its push towards 6000 this morning after the dollar surged overnight and US stocks overcame a poorly-received press conference from President-elect Donald Trump.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 17 points or 0.3% higher at 5788, near Monday's 20-month closing high of 5807. Leading the rally were the metals & mining sector +0.8%, consumer discretionary +0.7% and industrials +0.7%. Capping gains were health stocks -0.6%, consumer staples -0.6% and utilities -0.3%.
The dollar jumped more than a cent overnight to its highest level since mid-December. The Aussie was lately buying 74.34 US cents after running as high as 74.72 cents.
US stocks shrugged off a mid-session wobble as Trump used a press conference to attack pharmaceutical pricing and failed to explain his plans to fire up the US economy. The S&P 500 closed 0.28% ahead.
"If Trump failing to address some issues most people believe he won't be able to deliver on anyway is the worst of it, then we are absolutely in a vacuum of bad news which markets can continue to rally into," Chris Conway, Head of Research at Australian Stock Report, told Fairfax. "I think the market can trade to [the 6000] level in the next few weeks and then the prospect of such a key level, the index being a touch overbought, and the spectre of reporting season will see – at the very least – some sideways consolidation or a pullback."
China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.22%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng opened flat and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.78%. Dow futures declined 16 points or 0.08%.
Crude oil futures backtracked seven cents or 0.13% this morning to US$52.18 a barrel. Gold futures were $1.90 or 0.16% weaker at US$1,194.70 an ounce.
The stock threads cop some stick here, often rightly so, but here's a quick word in their defence: in amongst the bickering, name-calling and join-our-cult faith-posting, there are nuggets of information that can save traders a motza. I stumbled into IOT this morning as a standard pullback trade, then visited the stock thread, learned there was another legal stoush in the wind (which the company had not announced) and immediately baled out of the trade for brokerage. That was at 3.1c. The sp has been as low as 2.8c since the company acknowledged the report. In other words, checking the thread saved me up to four figures. Not the first time, either. That's my only trade so far - missed BAL for the second day running. Watching BUB for re-entry - I like the falling volume, but the trend is ugly.
