daytrading april 30 afternoon

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    Thanks Endless.

    Half-time round-up:

    Australian stocks reached a six-month high this morning as business lending picked up and Asian equity markets rallied.

    At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 29 points or 0.7% at 4391 after earlier touching 4394, its highest level since late October. The rally was led by mining stocks - the gold sector added 1.8%, metals & mining 1.3% and materials 1.2%. The defensive health sector was the only sector to lose ground, falling 0.3%. The gains came amid anticipation regarding tomorrow's Reserve Bank rate-setting meeting.

    "In Australia, the consumer is really struggling," Kumar Palghat, managing director and founder of Kapstream Capital, told Bloomberg. "I really think tomorrow the RBA should cut 50 basis points. That will be a meaningful number to kick-start the economy again."

    The morning's economic news was generally supportive of rate cuts, with an increase in business lending offset by a plunge in new home sales and slowing inflation. Loans to corporates increased by 0.6% in February and total lending increased 0.4%, both more than expected. Sales of new homes slumped 9.4% last month to their lowest level since May 1994. Inflationary pressures declined this month, with inflation easing to 0.3% from 0.5% in March.

    Asian action was restricted, with both Japan and Shanghai closed for public holidays. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 1.12% and South Korea's Kospi put on 0.16%. Dow futures were recently ahead 18 points or more than 0.1%.

    Crude oil futures eased six cents this morning to US$104.75 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.50 stronger at US$1,664.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0451.


    Nice to see the market solid as a rock this morning. Will be very interesting to see to what extent it's pre-empting tomorrow's rate cut. I haven't really got out of second gear this morning. Made a day's wage in an early bounce in BTU then mentally switched off. Must try harder.
 
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