DT January 19 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares rallied off yesterday's 2017 closing low after a profit upgrade from health heavyweight CSL boosted investor optimism and jobs data beat expectations.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was nine points or 0.2% ahead at 5687 but struggling to retain gains after running as high as 5721 in the opening minutes of trade. The health sector provided most of the momentum, surging 5.4% thanks to a 10.5% bump in CSL after the blood products giant upgraded its profit outlook. The metals & mining sector put on 0.4%, materials 0.3% and utilities 0.3%. Capping the index's advance were falls in gold stocks -2.6%, telecoms -0.7% and financials -0.2%.

December jobs data provided fuel for both bulls and bears. While the economy added 13,500 new positions during the month, ahead of expectations, the jobless rate ticked up to 5.8% due to an increase in the participation rate.

The global rally in stocks since the US Presidential election has stalled since the start of the year amid doubts about Donal Trump's intentions and ability to execute his agenda. A mixed night saw the S&P 500 inch up 0.18% and the Dow lose 0.11%.

"It all feels as though markets are a little lost and searching for the next big thematic to key off," IG's Chris Weston told Fairfax. "We have had the 'Trumponomics' reflation trade playing though through November into December (i.e. short bonds and gold, long USD and financials), then everyone realised they had got a little too excited and that perhaps many of the policies were going to take some time to filter through, if they even were implemented. Then after a reasonable position unwind we find ourselves at a fairer juncture. US equities are lifeless and we are seeing very tight range."

China's Shanghai Composite retreated 0.19% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.33%. Japan's Nikkei improved 1.11%. Dow futures were recently four points or 0.02% ahead.

Crude oil futures bounced 41 cents or 0.8% this morning to US$51.49 a barrel. Gold futures sagged $10.70 or 0.88% to US$1,201.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.03 US cents.


A shout-out to Jim. Hope you're doing okay, mate. It's a tough game and most of us need to step away now and then to clear our heads and recharge the batteries. You're a bloody good bloke and far too valuable to this thread to lose. Hope to see you back when you're ready. Trading: just one, but a good un in NTC. I'd nominate it as one of the most manipulated stocks on the ASX, but highly tradeable if you can align your approach with the market-maker/HFT bot that pushes it around wherever it wants. Mind you, get it wrong and you're toast. RCE recovering from yesterday now the big dumper seems to be out.