Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: The share...

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    Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


    Half-time round-up:

    The share market's worst week of the year looked set to end on a steadier note after tentative signs of bargain-hunting this morning.

    The ASX 200 hit a six-month low before edging ahead one point or less than 0.1% at 5884 mid-session. The index bottomed at 5847 before rising on gains in the gold sector +4.4%, IT +2.8%, metals & mining +2% and health +1%. Limiting the recovery were declines in telecoms -2%, energy -1.6% and financials -0.6%.

    Barring a significant reversal this afternoon, the index looked well positioned to surpass a 283-point weekly deficit in February. At its low this morning the index had lost 339 points in five sessions.

    Sentiment this morning was helped by a rise in US equity futures after another torrid session. Overnight, the S&P 500 plummeted 2.06% and the Dow 546 points or 2.13%.  S&P futures were lately up 17.25 points or 0.63%. Dow futures were ahead 158 points or 0.63%.

    China's Shanghai Composite, which fell 5.22% to a  four-year low yesterday, was near break-even at -0.11% following reports that a much-anticipated report by the US Treasury Department will refrain from branding China a currency manipulator. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.52% and Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.27%.

    Crude oil futures recovered 21 cents or 0.3% this morning to US$71.18 a barrel. Gold futures eased $5.80 or 0.47% to US$1,221.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.16 US cents.



    FWIW, I suspect markets have come back deep enough for some sort of relief rally from here. However, we may have another session or two to get onboard. If you look at the February slump, for instance, our market recovered for two days, then backtested the lows before staging a genuine rebound. One example does not a pattern make, but it makes psychological sense and would not be unusual. Trading: much less eventful than yesterday, but another good morning. Clipped the post-dividend dive in SIG, then caught the rebound in LCK. Missed quite a few more promising reversal trades - those are another clue that there are buyers looking to take advantage of this sell-off.
 
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