Afternoon trading April 4

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    Thanks Endless and morning crew. I see daylight saving in the south-eastern states is still causing a bit of confusion elsewhere.


    Half-time round-up:

    Shares lost ground for a fourth day as a directionless morning in Asia dragged on US equity futures.

    Positive overnight leads from the US proved deceptive as the ASX 200 shed its opening gains in the first 15 minutes to reach the halfway mark of the session 16 points or 0.3% lower at 5736. Leading the retreat were consumer discretionary stocks -1.1%, telecoms -0.7% and financials -0.6%. Cushioning the fall were rises in health stocks +0.6%, consumer staples +0.2% and IT +0.1%.

    Asian markets appeared unconvinced by an overnight recovery on Wall Street. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was little changed at +0.06%. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.09%. China's Shanghai Composite rallied 0.56%.

    Overnight, the S&P 500 bounced 1.26%. S&P 500 futures were recently down 7.25 points or 0.3% as a war of words over trade continued between China and the US.

    "This trade tension story is the biggest uncertainty for China from the external perspective and the story is developing every day," Haibin Zhu, chief China economist at JP Morgan, told CNBC. "Trade war, or the tariffs, are never a zero sum game. It's actually a lose-lose situation. China will probably lose more, but the U.S. will also suffer."

    Crude oil futures slid 14 cents or 0.22% this morning to US$63.37 a barrel. Gold futures edged up $1.10 or 0.08% to US$1,338.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.1 US cents.


    Trading: comprehensively outgunned by Endless. Got a pip from AYR - in 1c, out 1.1c. Should have held my nerve. Also took AEE, but no joy there yet.
 
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