Afternoon trading April 17

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares pushed towards a third day of gains after solid Chinese GDP data soothed fears over the impact of a trade squabble with the US.  

The ASX 200 shook off a mid-morning wobble to reach the halfway point 20 points or 0.3% higher at 5861 following the noon EST release of a raft of Chinese data. Gross domestic product held steady over the last quarter for an annual growth reading of 6.8%. Economists had expected a mild easing to 6.7%. Two monthly data points came in marginally below expectations: year-on-year industrial production eased to 6% last month from 7.2% in February (expected: 6.4%). Fixed asset investments grew by 7.5% (expected 7.7%). Retail sales surprised to the upside: 10.1% versus an expected 9.7%. Read more here.

The ASX saw broad gains, led by gold stocks +1%, telecoms +0.7%, energy +0.6% and materials +0.6%. Financials was the exception with a loss of 0.1%.

A low-key session in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite reverse early losses following the data dump, lately up 0.05%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.17% and Japan's Nikkei 0.01%. S&P 500 futures were recently ahead five points or 0.19%.

Crude oil futures improved 34 cents or 0.61% this morning to US$66.56 a barrel. Gold futures faded $1.20 or 0.1% to US$1,349.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.68 US cents.



Trading: quick couple of pips out of EGS at the open to get the show on the road. However, 'the show' then pulled into a layby and put up its feet for the rest of the morning. Small speculator taken in COB when it went below $1.20. Tiddler bought yesterday is now comatose - hate when that happens. Volume is everything in this game.