The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed up 0.8% or 31 points to 4071, after recovering some mild losses in the morning. In after hours future trading, the market is steady whilst Euro and US futures point to similar gains.
Asian markets experienced smaller moves, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.2% to 8741 points, whilst the Hang Seng was down 0.38% at 18942 points, although the standout was the Shanghai Composite, up 2.8% to 2516 points.
In other risk assets, the AUD was steady at 1.0283 whilst WTI crude slipped slightly to $86.85 USD per barrel after small gains overnight.
The strange shiny metal gold is proving frustrating for short term traders (read: me) and is rallying, now at $1812 USD an ounce.
Movers and Shakers
A generally good day across the board on the ASX, with healthcare and IT sectors the standouts, whilst utilities and financials underperformed. CSL provided most of the gains for healthcare, up nearly 5% on a breakout (Disclosure: I’m long a small anticipatory position).
The banks were all positive, except Commonwealth (CBA) off almost 1%. Macquarie (MQG) jumped 3.3% whilst volatile Cochlear (COH) clawed back almost 1% after falling heavily yesterday.
Paladin (PDN) was the biggest winner on the ASX200 today, up 6.5%, whilst rare earth metal miner Lynas (LYC) lost a staggering 12% and is now more than 50% below its historic high from mid-April.
BHP Billiton (BHP) was up almost 1% alongside Rio Tinto (RIO) whilst gold miner Newcrest (NCM) gained 1.3%.
The Charts
“No reason to get excited, the thief he kindly spoke….”
The short term daily pattern is still very close to the bottom of a sideways price channel with support at 4000 and resistance at 4300 points. There is evidence that a bullish base is being formed, but as Jimi-Bob says above, don’t get too excited. Like most traders (and I would dare say most investors) I am waiting for “the joke” emanating from the FOMC in the next day or so.
