Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
Rising resource stocks helped hold the ASX near break-even in choppy action ahead of a lunchtime economic update from China.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was four points or 0.1% ahead at 5762 after rising as high as 5784 in opening action and falling as low as 5751 by mid-morning. Mining stocks led the rally following overnight gains in bulk commodities and ahead of February data on Chinese industrial production, asset investment and retail sales at 1pm EST.
The metals & mining sector put on 1.4%, energy 1%, materials 1% and gold 0.7%. Tempering gains were falls in utilities -0.75%, IT -0.3% and financials -0.3%.
Trading this week has been dominated by portfolio reshuffling ahead of a likely US rate rise on Thursday morning.
“Markets fully expect a rate rise, so market reaction is likely to be muted unless the Fed disappoints which would lead to lower bond yields and a lower dollar, although that is not our expectation,” Mike Bell, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, told
Bloomberg. “All attention is likely to be focused on the press conference to see whether a more hawkish tone is struck, if so yields and the dollar could move higher still.”
China's Shanghai Composite added 0.15% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.12%. Japan's Nikkei retreated 0.16%. Dow futures were recently down 20 points or 0.1%.
Crude oil futures eased four cents or 0.08% this morning to US$48.36 a barrel. Gold futures edged up 50 cents or 0.04% to US$1,203.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.63 US cents.
The market is almost as wild this morning as the weather on the east coast. Medicinal marijuana hit a pothole (groan - get off the stage). If MXC goes any lower I'll need something tonight to take the edge off. Normally use whisky but weed needs all the help it can get today - support your local dealer. MMJ offered at least a couple of bounce opps - I nailed one. Also took GMR and SAS for half a pip each - small stuff but it adds up if you do enough of it over the year.
