USRant: Look Out Below.

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

You will read all sorts of mindless falderol this weekend about Friday's "big rally" in Equities - but bear in mind that all it did was prevent a continuation of an existing weekly breakdown. For the week, the indices were barely changed - for the week the S&P rose 4 points, the Dow rose 25, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 15 points. So don't break out the Krug just yet - particularly since the market action in the last two hours today was faker than the hair colour of an Oprah audience. Faker than George Bush's masculinity. Faker than Paul Wolfowitz's commitment to his Oath of Office (the one where he pledged allegiance to the US, not the one where he pledged it to Likud - that one's completely genuine). Fake, fake, fake.

That doesn't bode well for next week...

Federal Reserve Open Market Operations

The Fed's Open Market Operations desk performed 1 repurchase operations - a $4.75 billion overnight repurchase entirely in T-backed collateral.

$4.75 billion in T-backed is never enough to give the market firs-hour follow through, and so it was this session - the market had to wait for some really flagrant last-hour, month-end manipulation in Crude before it could get its groove on.

Major US Indices

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened with a strong pop, and was up 60 points within five minutes. With insufficient repurchase gas in the tank, 10 a.m. was going to provide a test of the advance; if it was just nuffnuffs there would be no follow through, and if there was genuine institutional participation the index would have kept climbing.

Well, 10 a.m. marked a swing high that was not subsequently exceeded until after 2 p.m., when oil started dropping like a rock. Somebody big went hunting for nuffie-stops in the oil market, and did so by sticking their foot on oil's neck; at the same time simultaneously firing off mid-sized BUY programs in equities. It was all executed at the thinnest trade period of the week - Friday afternoon - for maximum effect.

After the opening orgasm, the market hit its morning peak right at 10 a.m. (10:03 for those playing at home), and within thirty seconds it was obvious there would be no institutional participation in any 10 a.m. jamjob. By 10:45 the Dow had given back all of the opening rally, and some interest as well... it fell to its intraday low just under 10050 (at 10048.12, to be more precise). At the same time, the S&Ps broker 1140, the Nasdaq Comp broke 1900 and the Nasdaq100 broke 1400... and then everything bounced.

And what a bounce; 60 Dow points in 20 minutes - precisely the sort of bounce you get when fade traders decide that they can pocket some profits, and breakout traders realise they've been had yet again. (All the indices broke below yesterday's low, encouraging breakout traders to jump short - whereas we have been looking for bounces to predominate since the weekly chart hit oversold almost two weeks ago).

Still, the market was below its 10 a.m. level right through until 2 p.m. - that is a good indication of the actual technical tenor of the thing at present. In the last two hours the Dow completed a 150-point march from its low, eventually closing with a gain of 122.14 points (1.21%), at 10192.51 points. The index hit an intraday high of 10196.36 ten minutes before the close (so the intraday march was only 148 points, actually).

The worrisome thing - from my perspective - is that 90 points of the Dow's rise happened in the last 90 minutes. That coincided with an obvious manipulative hammering of crude oil, and both spurts were timed to take advantage of thin Friday afternoon trading conditions (when the costs of manipulation are low, since you don't have to buy [sell] many contracts to 'clear the decks'). The bounce that I was expecting has not played out anywhere near as ebulliently as one would expect with the depth of the oversold condition that existed two weeks ago; that is not a good sign.

Within the blue-chip index, 26 stocks rose, the biggest gainers being Microsoft (MSFT, +3.48% to $25.30) - despite weaker than expected earnings. Du Pont (DD, +2.50% to $47.11) also had a good day. MSFT and DD accounted for 15 Dow points between them. Losers in the Dow numbered 4 and were led by Mcdonalds (MCD, -1.01% to $29.31) and American International Group (AIG, -0.57% to $50.85), with these two stocks contributing -4 Dow points worth of downward pressure on the index. Volume traded was tilted in favour of the gainers by 386.9m shares to 38.3m.

The broader S&P500 gained 13.63 points (1.19%), to end the session at 1156.85. Within the index, gainers numbered 397, while 96 S&P500 stocks fell for the day. Volume was tilted 2.8:1 in favour of the winners with 1642.31 million units traded in the winners as compared with 584.06 million traded in the losers .

Over at Times Square, the Nasdaq Composite rose 17.47 points (0.92%), to close at 1921.65, while larger-cap technology issues fared worse with the Nasdaq100 adding 11.5 points (0.82%), to end at 1420.79 points. Within the tech benchmark, gainers numbered 73, while 26 Nasdaq100 stocks fell for the day. Volume was tilted 2.8:1 in favour of the winners with 714.87 million traded in the winners compared to 253.28 million in the losers .

NYSE Volume was super-chunky, with 2.36 billion shares changing hands, while Nasdaq Volume was super-chunky (over 2 bill), with 2.04 billion shares being shifted from one online brokerage account to another (and back again, in all likelihood).

All things considered, I'm thinking very seriously of waiting for the last nuffies to jump long on Monday morning NY time, and then taking a short (it will be necessary to wait for the repurchase data on Monday before finalising the entry... there will be an e-mail).

Major Market Statistics
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Dow Jones Industrial Average	10192.51	122.14	1.21%
S&P500	1156.85	13.63	1.19%
Nasdaq Composite	1921.65	17.47	0.92%
Nasdaq100	1420.79	11.5	0.82%
NYSE Volume	2.36bn	-	-
Nasdaq Volume	2.04bn	-	-

Bellwethers

My 9-stock "bellwethers" group rose by an average of 1.29%

• General Electric (GE) +$0.53 (1.49%) to $36.20;
• Citigroup (C) +$0.77 (1.67%) to $46.96;
• Wal Mart (WMT) +$0.09 (0.19%) to $47.14;
• I.B.M. (IBM) +$0.47 (0.62%) to $76.38;
• Intel (INTC) +$0.33 (1.42%) to $23.52;
• Cisco Systems (CSCO) +$0.13 (0.76%) to $17.27;
• eBay (EBAY) -$0.09 (0.28%) to $31.71;
• Fannie Mae (FNM) +$1.71 (3.27%) to $53.95; and
• Freddie Mac (FRE) +$1.47 (2.45%) to $61.52.

Market Breadth & Internals

NYSE advancing Issues exceeded decliners by 2178 to 1092 for a single-day A/D reading of 1086; Nasdaq gainers trumped losers by 1846 to 1233. The 10-day moving average of the A/D line rose to -11.4 on the NYSE, while the 10dma of the Nasdaq A/D rose to -343.3.

NYSE advancing volume exceeded volume in decliners by 1577.7 to 708.9 million shares; Nasdaq advancing volume was greater than volume in decliners by 1370.7 to 631 million shares.

44 NYSE-listed stocks rose to new 52-week highs, and 137 posted fresh 52-week lows, while on the Nasdaq there were 26 stocks that hit new 52-week highs, and 224 which fell to fresh 52-week lows.

Market Breadth Statistics
	NYSE	Nasdaq
Advancers	2178	1846
Decliners	1092	1233
Advancing Volume (m)	1577.65	1370.72
Declining Volume (m)	708.88	630.98
New Highs	44	26
New Lows	137	224

Market Sentiment Statistics
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
CBOE Volatility Index	15.33	-1.49	-8.86%
CBOE Nasdaq Volatility Index	18.6	-1.52	-7.55%
Equity Put-Call Ratio	0.82	-0.01	-1.2%
10-day PCR	0.78	0.01	1.3%
SPX-VIX Ratio	75.5	7.5	11.03%

Bond Market Analysis

Bonds fell at the long end, with the yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond rising 1.4 bps to 4.519%. Considering how bad yesterday's deflator numbers were, I am very surprised that bonds didn't fall more than a point. On Monday I will be taking a short in the 30-year bond market, pretty much at the open, unless I think of some sexier way to get exposure to a yield curve steepening. The bloody curve is FAR too flat at the moment, given the near-certainty of another 25bp hike by the Fed when next they meet. Note that I'm not saying that the curve s too flat because the economy is going to surprise to the upside; rather that the US external imbalances and the US dollar are going to surprise to the downside.

The middle of the yield curve was broadly lower: five year yields rose to 3.896%, and ten-year yields rose to 4.201%.

Spreads between short-dated (2-yr) Treasuries and high-grade corporate bonds of similar maturity profiles were 2.0 bps tighter at 8.0 basis points; spreads between longer dated Treasuries and their corporate AAA counterparts fell to 61.0 bps for 10-year AAA, and 84.0 bps for 20-years.

Credit spreads (spreads between corporate bonds of the same maturity profile but different creditworthiness) were broadly tighter with the AAA-A spread on 20-years 1.0 bps wider at 45.0 basis points and the 10-year AAA-A spread 1 bp wider at 2.0 bps.

Treasury Yields
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
UST 13wk (yld)	2.837	0	0%
UST 2Y (yld)	3.63	0.08	2.25%
UST 5Y (yld)	3.896	0.052	1.35%
UST 10Y (yld)	4.201	0.028	0.67%
UST 30Y (yld)	4.519	0.014	0.31%

The Banks Index gained 1.28 points (1.33%), ending the day at 97.39; within the index,

• Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) +$1.23 (2.91%) to $43.50;
• Bank Of NY (BK) +$0.69 (2.53%) to $27.94;
• National City Corp (NCC) +$0.73 (2.2%) to $33.96;
• Mellon Financial (MEL) +$0.56 (2.06%) to $27.69; and
• North Fork Bancorp (NFB) +$0.56 (2.03%) to $28.13.

The Broker-dealer Index added 1.75 points (1.29%), to 137.42; the ticket clippers lined up as follows -

• Morgan Stanley (MWD) +$2.18 (4.32%) to $52.62;
• Charles Schwab (SCH) +$0.32 (3.19%) to $10.35;
• Ameritrade (AMTD) +$0.21 (2.04%) to $10.48;
• Jeffries Group (JEF) +$0.57 (1.6%) to $36.14; and
• A G Edwards (AGE) +$0.61 (1.56%) to $39.71.

The Philadelphia SOX (Semiconductor) index rose 1.31 points (0.34%), to 385.65

• Micron Technology (MU) +$0.14 (1.46%) to $9.71;
• Intel (INTC) +$0.33 (1.42%) to $23.52;
• Texas Instruments (TXN) +$0.35 (1.42%) to $24.96;
• Taiwan Semiconductors (TSM) +$0.10 (1.18%) to $8.61; and
• Broadcom (BRCM) +$0.34 (1.15%) to $29.90.

Gold & Silver Markets

Gold rose $3.70 (0.86%) to close at $435 per ounce. I was right when I surmised yesterday that the RantBuilder had rolled forward the price to reflect the new front month. Today it's also got the correct reference value for yesterday, so changes and percentage changes are also correct.

Gold Bugs Index advanced 2.04 points (1.16%), to end the session at 178.03

• Newmont Mining (NEM) +$1.14 (3.1%) to $37.97;
• Iamgold (IAG) +$0.18 (3.05%) to $6.09;
• Kinross Gold (KGC) +$0.15 (2.88%) to $5.35;
• Freeport McMoran (FCX) +$0.69 (2.03%) to $34.66; and
• Meridian Gold (MDG) +$0.28 (1.87%) to $15.24.

Silver fell by $0.05 (0.68%) to close at $6.9 per ounce. The Gold and Silver Index (XAU) gained 1.38 points (1.68%), closing at 83.51 points.

• Newmont Mining (NEM) +$1.14 (3.1%) to $37.97;
• Kinross Gold (KGC) +$0.15 (2.88%) to $5.35;
• Barrick Gold (ABX) +$0.51 (2.34%) to $22.32; and
• Freeport McMoran (FCX) +$0.69 (2.03%) to $34.66.

Precious Metals and Indices
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Gold	435.00	3.70	0.86%
Silver	6.90	-0.05	-0.68%
PHLX Gold and Silver Index	83.51	1.38	1.68%
AMEX Gold BUGS Index	178.03	2.04	1.16%

Oil Market

Oil dropped like a rock, shedding $2.40 per barrel, closing at $49.72 per barrel. To put into perspective how extreme the decline was, front-month crude was trading at $51.20 at 1:40 p.m., $50.20 ten minutes later, and $49.20 an hour after that. The drop from $50.10 to $49.20 happened in less than three minutes. In other words, long-side sops were being hunted (during the thin Friday afternoon trade).

Oddly, the Oil and Gas Index (XOI) actually advanced 7.65 points (0.95%), closing at 816.67, mostly because major oilers have been reporting blowout earnings (with some few exceptions). Like I've said before - the Iraq invasion wasn't about securing oil supplies for the American people - it was about securing profits for American political donors (and of course enabling massive tax transfers to American Defence contractors).

• Occidental Petroleum (OXY) +$1.70 (2.53%) to $69.00;
• ConocoPhillips (COP) +$2.09 (2.03%) to $104.85; and
• Exxon Mobil (XOM) +$1.03 (1.84%) to $57.03.

The Oil service stocks (OSX) Index lost 0.33 points (0.26%), to 128.92

• Smith International (SII) -$0.69 (1.17%) to $58.11;
• Transocean (RIG) -$0.39 (0.83%) to $46.37; and
• Noble Corp (NE) -$0.42 (0.82%) to $50.90.

Energy Complex
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Reuters CRB	303.74	-0.66	-0.22%
Crude Oil Light Sweet	49.72	-2.4	-4.6%
Heating Oil	1.4358	-0.06	-3.86%
Natural Gas	6.585	-0.21	-3.02%
Unleaded Gas	1.4933	-0.06	-3.6%
AMEX Oil Index	816.67	7.65	0.95%
Oil Service Index	128.92	-0.33	-0.26%

Currency Markets

USD Exchange Rates
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
US Dollar Index	84.42	0.04	0.05%
Euro	1.2868	-0.0022	-0.17%
Yen	104.79	-1.25	-1.18%
Sterling	1.9078	0.0016	0.08%
Australian Dollar	0.7805	0.0017	0.22%
Swiss Franc	1.1953	0.0023	0.19%
Canadian Dollar	0.7945	-0.0042	-0.53%

OzRant: Friday Fade Starts at the Open...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

Fridays are renowned for a late-afternoon fade, but today all the damage was done within spitting distance of the starting gate. In fact between 11 a.m. and the close, the Australian market actually gained a point: almost all of the intraday point move in the headline index was achieved in the first hour. In the afternoon there were a couple of attempts for control by the bears, but they amounted to absolutely squat. Again, there was the odd "uptick" right at the close...

Major Market Indices

The broad market - the ASX All Ordinaries - fell by 32.20 points (-0.81%), finishing at 3943.10 points. The index opened at its high for the day (3975.30) and its low of 3930.4 was set at 2:30 p.m. Sydney time.

Total volume traded on the ASX was finally respectable after almost two weeks of tawdry volume. Today it added up to 1.03 billion units, 14.7% above its 10-day average. Of the 483 stocks in the index, 279 fell while 97 managed a gain. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of about 6:1, with 528.34 million shares traded in losers while 88.68 million shares traded in the day's gainers.

The Index that forms the cash basis for the SFE's Share Price Index Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 - fell by 28.40 points (-0.71%), finishing at 3983.20 points.

The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX 20 Leaders - fell by 19.70 points (-0.91%), finishing at 2153.00 points. Within the index members, there was just one single Top Twenty stock that rose - the other 19 were all losers. Total volume in rising issues within the ASX20 amounted to 4.65 million units, which was swamped by the 196.11 million units that were exchanged in the loser.

The sole winners in the "big guns" was St George Bank (SGB), up +$0.29 (1.18%) to $24.80 on volume of 4.65m shares.

New Corpse was the big drag on the leaders, dropping a couple of percent in the eternal struggle between fair value ($10 in the new figures) and its acutal trading price. Even so, today it had plenty of company in the "Naughty Corner"...

• News Corporation (NWSLV), -$0.45 (2.27%) to $19.35 on volume of 5.53m shares;
• News Corporation (NWS), -$0.43 (2.09%) to $20.11 on volume of 6.93m shares;
• Woodside Petroleum (WPL), -$0.44 (1.85%) to $23.31 on volume of 4.51m shares;
• Telstra Corporation. (TLS), -$0.09 (1.83%) to $4.84 on volume of 22.79m shares; and
• Commonwealth Bank Of Australia. (CBA), -$0.61 (1.66%) to $36.24 on volume of 5.94m shares.

At the smaller end of the market's capitalisation scale, the ASX Small Ordinaries Index fell by 18.60 points (-0.84%), finishing at 2182.60 points. Of the 194 stocks in the index, 119 fell while 43 managed a gain. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of 4.0:1, with 117.53 million shares traded in losers while 29.6 million shares traded in gainers. The major winners in the "pop-guns" were -

• Sirtex Medical (SRX), +$0.16 (12.9%) to $1.40 on volume of 19,000 shares;
• Pacific Hydro (PHY), +$0.40 (8.57%) to $5.07 on volume of 1.7m shares;
• Sunland Group (SDG), +$0.09 (5.44%) to $1.75 on volume of 2.28m shares;
• Thakral Holdings Group (THG), +$0.03 (3.9%) to $0.80 on volume of 1.43m shares; and
• Sino Gold (SGX), +$0.06 (3.56%) to $1.60 on volume of 210,000 shares.

The losingest-little-guys for the session were (in order of decline):

• Kresta Holdings (KRS), -$0.05 (16.67%) to $0.25 on volume of 3.81m shares;
• Centennial Coal Company (CEY), -$0.43 (8.83%) to $4.44 on volume of 3.73m shares; and
• Ventracor (VCR), -$0.07 (7.65%) to $0.79 on volume of 1.33m shares;
• Giants Reef Mining (GTM), -$0.00 (7.14%) to $0.03 on volume of 19.75m shares; and
• Capral Aluminium (CAA), -$0.13 (7.1%) to $1.70 on volume of 124,000 shares.

Index Changes
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XAO	All Ordinaries	3943.1	-32.2	-0.81%	2125.358
XTL	S&P/ASX 20	2153	-19.7	-0.91%	200.76m
XFL	S&P/ASX 50	3941.5	-25.1	-0.63%	0
XTO	S&P/ASX 100	3244.1	-22.7	-0.69%	0
XJO	S&P/ASX 200	3983.2	-28.4	-0.71%	585.07m
XKO	S&P/ASX 300	3979.4	-28.4	-0.71%	0
XMD	S&P/ASX Mid-Cap 50	3843.7	-41.6	-1.07%	0
XSO	S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries	2182.6	-18.6	-0.84%	184.52m

All Ordinaries Market Internals

[]

Market Breadth
	XAO	XJO	XSO	ASX20	Market
Advances	97	47	43	1	305
Declines	279	133	119	19	614
Advancing Volume	88.68m	77.75m	29.6m	4.65	280.79
Declining Volume	528.34m	448.28m	117.53m	196.11	622.62

S&P/ASX200 GICS Sector Indices

The top sector for the day - in fact the only sector to eke out a gain - was Utilities. It posted a gain of 1.49% to 4875.30 points - which is pretty respectable given the general malaise. Of the 8 stocks in the sector, 4 rose while 3 fell (Australian Pipeline Trust was unchanged). Volume was tilted in favour of the gainers by a margin of 2.8:1, with 3.84 million shares traded in gainers compared to 1.35 million shares traded in losers. The sector was helped by

• Pacific Hydro (PHY), +$0.40 (8.57%) to $5.07 on volume of 1.7m shares;
• Alinta (ALN), +$0.18 (1.98%) to $9.25 on volume of 544,000 shares;
• Australian Gas Light Company (AGL), +$0.22 (1.56%) to $14.32 on volume of 1.37m shares; and
• Energy Developments (ENE), +$0.02 (0.54%) to $3.71 on volume of 228,000 shares.

As I mentioned, no other sector got above the gain line; as such I am spared from preparing bullet lists for second and third places, which were Energy (which lost -0.49% to 7950.70 points) and ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts (which lost -0.52% to 4931.70 points).

The worst-performed sector today was Information Technology which took a 2.10% dump, closing at 344.90 points. There are only 7 stocks in the sector, and of these 5 fell while 2 managed a gain (the gainers were MYOB up 2c to $1.07 and Infomedia up a cent to $0.52). Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of just over 12:1, with 11.32 million shares traded in losers while 940 thousand shares were traded in the aforementioned gainers. The sector was dragged lower by

• Computershare (CPU), -$0.20 (3.85%) to $5.00 on volume of 7.79m shares;
• ERG (ERG), -$0.01 (1.96%) to $0.25 on volume of 3.07m shares;
• IRESS Market Technology (IRE), -$0.05 (1.25%) to $3.95 on volume of 96,000 shares;
• Baycorp Advantage (BCA), -$0.03 (1.03%) to $2.88 on volume of 189,000 shares; and
• Vision Systems (VSL), -$0.01 (0.45%) to $1.11 on volume of 169,000 shares.

Just in front of last place on the sector table was the 2-stock Telecommunications which lost 1.46% to 1733.50 points. In other words, Telstra fell. The entire sector in its full glorious display looked like this:

• Telstra Corporation. (TLS), -$0.09 (1.83%) to $4.84 on volume of 22.79m shares; and
• Telecom Corporation Of New Zealand (TEL), +$0.05 (0.89%) to $5.67 on volume of 513,000 shares.

Sector Indices
Code	GICS Sector	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XUJ	Utilities	4875.3	71.7	1.49%	5.28m
XEJ	Energy	7950.7	-39.4	-0.49%	25.12m
XXJ	ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts	4931.7	-26	-0.52%	104.83m
XFJ	Financials	4856.3	-26.4	-0.54%	182.37m
XSJ	Consumer Staples	5317.5	-31.1	-0.58%	43.74m
XPJ	Property Trusts	1752.5	-10.4	-0.59%	87.75m
XHJ	Healthcare	4659.6	-30.6	-0.65%	7.15m
XNJ	Industrials	4790	-39.2	-0.81%	48.62m
XDJ	Consumer Discretionary	2056.5	-18.7	-0.9%	46.56m
XMJ	Materials	6547.7	-68.6	-1.04%	173.56m
XTJ	Telecommunications	1733.5	-25.7	-1.46%	23.3m
XIJ	Information Technology	344.9	-7.4	-2.1%	12.25m

All Ordinaries Major Movers

All Ords Volume Leaders
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
BHP	BHP Billiton	16.04	-0.1	-0.62%	42.24m
PPX	Paperlinx	2.8	-1.02	-26.7%	29.87m
TLS	Telstra Corporation.	4.84	-0.09	-1.83%	22.79m
ANZ	Australia And New Zealand Banking Group	21.6	-0.2	-0.92%	16.92m
NAB	National Australia Bank	29.09	-0.39	-1.32%	13.74m
WMR	WMC Resources	7.92	-0.04	-0.5%	13.02m

All Ords Percentage Gainers
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
PHY	Pacific Hydro	5.07	0.4	8.57%	1.7m
OMI	Occupational & Medical Innovations	0.64	0.04	6.67%	108235
SDG	Sunland Group	1.75	0.09	5.44%	2.28m
THG	Thakral Holdings Group	0.8	0.03	3.9%	1.43m
SGX	Sino Gold	1.6	0.06	3.56%	209730

All Ords Percentage Decliners
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
SSS	Sam's Seafood Holdings	0.51	-0.43	-45.74%	113331
PPX	Paperlinx	2.8	-1.02	-26.7%	29.87m
KRS	Kresta Holdings	0.25	-0.05	-16.67%	3.81m
BOC	Bougainville Copper	0.79	-0.16	-16.4%	102412
UNW	Unwired Group	0.32	-0.06	-15.79%	1.28m

Elsewhere in the Region...

Japan's Nikkei 225 was closed for Greenery Day - and is also closed for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week for Golden Week. It's open on Monday though.

The Kiwi Market advanced 14.32 points (0.48%) at 2982.646 points. After dipping to 2966.294 during a squishy opening hour, the Kiwi market found its feet and rallied for most of the remainder of the session, setting its session high at 2986.469 with a half-hour left in the day.

A total of 15 stocks within the NZSE50 rose, with volume in advancers totalling 14.2 million units. Decliners numbered 25, and total volume traded in losers was 6.3 million shares. So despite a headline gain, the internals of the Kiwi market looked less-than-salubrious. Individual stocks that led the percentage gainers list:

• Feltex Carpets (FTX), +NZ$0.04 (6.15%) to NZ$0.69 on volume of 610,000 shares;
• Sky Network Television (SKY), +NZ$0.20 (3.13%) to NZ$6.60 on volume of 58,000 shares;
• NGC Holdings (NGC), +NZ$0.08 (2.45%) to NZ$3.34 on volume of 1.21m shares;
• Contact Energy (CEN), +NZ$0.17 (2.45%) to NZ$7.12 on volume of 304,000 shares;
• Promina Group (PMN), +NZ$0.10 (1.89%) to NZ$5.40 on volume of 53,000 shares; and
• Fletcher Building (FBU), +NZ$0.08 (1.31%) to NZ$6.20 on volume of 842,000 shares.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is down a sharpish 99.71 points (-0.72%) at lunchtime. The index opened promisingly, rallying about 40 points in the first ten minutes of the session, eventually hitting its session high of 13868.6 after less than 20 minutes of trade. From there it went all sour, and before midday the index had tested 13800: the low of 13801.18 was registered at about 11:55 a.m. - and closed for the luncheon interval at 13809.71 points.

Within the Hang Seng, 5 index components rose, while 23 stocks fell. Volume in the gainers in Hong Kong's big-cap index totalled 25.4 million units, which was swamped by total volume traded in losers which was 104 million shares. Individual stocks that contributed to the decline included...

• CNOOC (0883), -HK$0.13 (2.89%) to HK$4.20 on volume of 38.28m shares;
• Cosco Pacific (1199), -HK$0.35 (2.03%) to HK$16.85 on volume of 8.43m shares;
• Denway Motors (0203), -HK$0.05 (1.85%) to HK$2.65 on volume of 8.52m shares;
• PCCW (0008), -HK$0.08 (1.62%) to HK$4.55 on volume of 6.58m shares;
• China Unicom (0762), -HK$0.10 (1.57%) to HK$6.25 on volume of 3.26m shares; and
• Li & Fung (0494), -HK$0.20 (1.32%) to HK$14.95 on volume of 2.14m shares.

Regional Indices
Country	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
New Zealand	NZSE50	2982.646	14.32	0.48%	23.59m
Japan	Nikkei 225	11008.9	3.48	0.03%	105619
Korea	KOSPI	911.3	-6.43	-0.7%	321404
Singapore	Straits Times	2129.62	-10.62	-0.5%	0
Hong Kong	Hang Seng	13809.71	-99.71	-0.72%	139.93m
Malaysia	KLSE Comp	877.58	3.73	0.43%	0

USRant: Gave It ALL Back, And Then Some...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

Well, it started out looking like the market would shrug off another batch of squishy economic numbers, and after the repo moonshot countdown was complete the market did as expected. The just 30 minutes after the Repo Express left the station, it all turned into a dog's breakfast (what do dogs have for breakfast that makes it such a good metaphor for extreme untidiness?).

Federal Reserve Open Market Operations

The Fed's Open Market Operations desk performed 2 repurchase operations.

• a $7billion, overnight repurchase with $6.883billion in T-backed collateral ; and
• a $8billion, 14-day repurchase entirely in T-backed collateral.

Now that's a spicy meat-a-ball.... and yet the only benefit from a long position at 10 a.m. (the usual kickoff time for the repo jamjob) was a decent scalp long for about 5 S&P points. If you can do that consistently you wind up exceedingly well-off, but even so the amount of fuel poured into the tank did not result in a decent squeeze of the shorts.

It also reinforces my long-held suspicion that the Fed gets a "heads up" on economic data, and if it's bad they try and mitigate the market fallout by doing a huge repo. (Sure, the 14-day repo is just a renewal, but the overnight is larger than liquidity requires).

Major US Indices

When that amount of rocket fuel doesn't get a genuine and significant move happening, something's awry. Sure, 5 points in half an hour is not to be sneezed at, but $14 bill is a lot of liquidity for an outcome of that size. The GDP numbers were much worse than expectations (+3.1% versus expectations of +3.5%) and the GDP deflator is starting to heat up (+3.2% versus expectations of +2.0%). The Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) deflator rose a whopping 3.5%... tell me again how inflation is not an issue? [Also, why the hell didn't bonds fall? Because professional nuffnuffs think the world only has two assets].

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 128.43 points (1.26%), closing out the day at 10070.37 points (less than 0.25 points from its session low). The index hit an intraday high of 10194.58 (at the open) and after the repurchase-pump at 10 a.. (which only lasted half an hour) everything turned to a big steaming pile.

Within the blue-chip index, 4 stocks rose, the biggest gainers being Merck (MRK, +0.90% to $33.79) and Procter & Gamble (PG, +0.86% to $53.99), which accounted for 6 Dow points between them. Losers in the Dow numbered 26 and were led by Exxon Mobil (XOM, -4.08% to $56.00) and Walt Disney (DIS, -3.50% to $25.90), with these two stocks contributing -25 Dow points worth of downward pressure on the index. Volume traded was tilted in favour of the losers by 359.1m shares to 47.8m.

The broader S&P500 declined 13.16 points (1.14%), ending the day at 1143.22. Within the index, gainers numbered 73, while 425 S&P500 stocks fell for the day. Volume was tilted 5:1 in favour of the losers with 1678.98 million units traded in the losers as compared with 336.76 million traded in the winners .

Over at Times Square, the Nasdaq Composite declined 26.25 points (1.36%), to close at 1904.18, while larger-cap technology issues fared better with the Nasdaq100 losing 14.47 points (1.02%), to end at 1409.29 points. Within the tech benchmark, gainers numbered 15, while 85 Nasdaq100 stocks fell for the day. Volume was tilted 3.9:1 in favour of the losers with 673.67 million traded in the losers compared to 170.58 million in the winners .

NYSE Volume was super-chunky, with 2.17 billion shares changing hands, while Nasdaq Volume was chunky, with 1.87 billion shares being shifted from one online brokerage account to another (and back again, in all likelihood).

Major Market Statistics
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Dow Jones Industrial Average	10070.37	-128.43	-1.26%
S&P500	1143.22	-13.16	-1.14%
Nasdaq Composite	1904.18	-26.25	-1.36%
Nasdaq100	1409.29	-14.47	-1.02%
NYSE Volume	2.17bn	-	-
Nasdaq Volume	1.87bn	-	-

Bellwethers

My 9-stock "bellwethers" group fell by an average of 1.21%; the two toxic waste dumps of the mortgage market reversed from their little bounce, and now things look technically pig-ugly for Fannie and Freddie. (Why pig ugly? Pigs are lovely animals; clever, sensitive, expressive. Maybe I should use the term ?Greenspan Ugly" from now on)...

• General Electric (GE) -$0.73 (2.01%) to $35.67;
• Citigroup (C) -$0.42 (0.9%) to $46.19;
• Wal Mart (WMT) -$0.24 (0.51%) to $47.05;
• I.B.M. (IBM) -$1.14 (1.48%) to $75.91;
• Intel (INTC) -$0.32 (1.36%) to $23.19;
• Cisco Systems (CSCO) -$0.11 (0.64%) to $17.14;
• eBay (EBAY) +$0.32 (1.02%) to $31.80;
• Fannie Mae (FNM) -$1.24 (2.32%) to $52.24; and
• Freddie Mac (FRE) -$1.69 (2.74%) to $60.05.

Market Breadth & Internals

NYSE declining Issues beat out advancers by 2250 to 1023, for a single-day A/D reading of -1227; and Nasdaq losers exceeded gainers by 2291 to 781. The 10-day moving average of the A/D line fell to -252.4 on the NYSE, while the 10dma of the Nasdaq A/D fell to -553.3.

On the NYSE declining volume was greater than volume in advancing issues by 1758 to 382.9 million shares; On the Nasdaq declining volume exceeded volume in advancing issues by 1471.4 to 372.4 million shares.

32 NYSE-listed stocks rose to new 52-week highs, and 144 posted fresh 52-week lows, while on the Nasdaq there were 29 stocks that hit new 52-week highs, and 217 which fell to fresh 52-week lows.

Market Breadth Statistics
	NYSE	Nasdaq
Advancers	1023	781
Decliners	2250	2291
Advancing Volume (m)	382.86	372.39
Declining Volume (m)	1757.99	1471.42
New Highs	32	29
New Lows	144	217

Market Sentiment Statistics
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
CBOE Volatility Index	16.82	1.95	13.11%
CBOE Nasdaq Volatility Index	20.12	1.35	7.19%
Equity Put-Call Ratio	0.83	-0.12	-12.63%
10-day PCR	0.77	0.02	1.99%
SPX-VIX Ratio	68	-9.8	-12.6%

Bond Market Analysis

Bonds rose at the long end, with the yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond shedding 4.8 basis points to 4.505%. The 30-year Treasury bond is getting riper an riper for a short (again); last night it closed above 115.

The middle of the yield curve was broadly higher: five year yields fell to 3.844%, and ten-year yields fell to 4.173%. That's what happens when your economy is falling off a cliff while you try to use guns and working class kiddies to steal other people's resources. The Romans tried that (well, they used the pilum and gladius rather than the Apache and Depleted Uranium, but the eventual outcome is the same... it is always massively economically inefficient to try and accumulate resources by conquest). Of course the NeoTrots think "this time it's different" - they have the same idiotic mindset as people who bought CSCO at $60.

Spreads between short-dated (2-yr) Treasuries and high-grade corporate bonds of similar maturity profiles were 3.0 basis points tighter at 8 basis points; spreads between longer dated Treasuries and their corporate AAA counterparts fell to 64.0 basis points for 10-year AAA, and 88.0 basis points for 20-years.

Credit spreads (spreads between corporate bonds of the same maturity profile but different creditworthiness) were mixed with the AAA-A spread on 20-years 2.0 basis points wider at 50.0 basis points and the 10-year AAA-A spread 3 basis points wider at a minuscule 4.0 basis points.

Treasury Yields
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
UST 13wk (yld)	2.811	0	0%
UST 2Y (yld)	3.55	-0.06	-1.66%
UST 5Y (yld)	3.844	-0.077	-1.96%
UST 10Y (yld)	4.173	-0.064	-1.51%
UST 30Y (yld)	4.505	-0.048	-1.05%

The Banks Index dipped 0.98 points (1.01%), closing at 96.11; within the index,

• Northern Trust (NTRS) -$1.07 (2.36%) to $44.24;
• Mellon Financial (MEL) -$0.63 (2.27%) to $27.13;
• Golden West Financial (GDW) -$1.40 (2.2%) to $62.26;
• National City Corp (NCC) -$0.63 (1.86%) to $33.23; and
• State Street (STT) -$0.86 (1.86%) to $45.42.

The Broker-dealer Index slid 2.98 points (2.15%), at 135.67; the ticket clippers lined up as follows -

• Legg Mason (LM) -$2.32 (3.17%) to $70.91;
• Jeffries Group (JEF) -$1.16 (3.16%) to $35.57;
• Ameritrade (AMTD) -$0.32 (3.02%) to $10.27;
• Charles Schwab (SCH) -$0.31 (3%) to $10.03; and
• E*Trade (ET) -$0.28 (2.46%) to $11.09.

The Philadelphia SOX (Semiconductor) index slid 3.39 points (0.87%), to end the session at 384.34

• Infineon Tech (IFX) -$0.35 (3.96%) to $8.48;
• ST Microelectronic (STM) -$0.58 (3.93%) to $14.16;
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) -$0.35 (2.41%) to $14.16;
• Teradyne (TER) -$0.27 (2.41%) to $10.95; and
• Intel (INTC) -$0.32 (1.36%) to $23.19.

Gold & Silver Markets

Gold fell by $1.70 (0.39%) to close at $431.30 per ounce. I've got a feeling that there's a stuffup in those numbers (the change and percentage change) because I think that the RantBuilder may have rolled over the front month to June without asking me (and without updating the "yesterday" figure used for comparisons. It's not supposed to be allowed to think for itself, but often supposedly digital things behave in modestly non-linear ways. If my computer ever asks to see Sarah Connor I will make sure I unplug it.

Gold Bugs Index shed 2.9 points (1.62%), to end the session at 175.99

• Coeur d'Alene (CDE) -$0.13 (4.09%) to $3.05;
• Iamgold (IAG) -$0.19 (3.11%) to $5.91;
• Freeport McMoran (FCX) -$0.89 (2.55%) to $33.97;
• Meridian Gold (MDG) -$0.37 (2.41%) to $14.96; and
• Hecla Mining (HL) -$0.11 (2.33%) to $4.62.

Silver fell by $0.18 (2.58%) to close at $6.95 per ounce. The Gold and Silver Index (XAU) lost 1.42 points (1.7%), at 82.13 points.

• Placer Dome (PDG) -$0.46 (3.33%) to $13.34;
• Freeport McMoran (FCX) -$0.89 (2.55%) to $33.97;
• Meridian Gold (MDG) -$0.37 (2.41%) to $14.96; and
• Newmont Mining (NEM) -$0.87 (2.31%) to $36.83.

Precious Metals and Indices
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Gold	431.30	-1.70	-0.39%
Silver	6.95	-0.18	-2.58%
PHLX Gold and Silver Index	82.13	-1.42	-1.7%
AMEX Gold BUGS Index	175.99	-2.9	-1.62%

Oil Market

Oil was firmer, rising by $0.77 per barrel, closing at $52.12 per barrel. The oil market had a significant intraday reversal - its low was under $50 (the second time it's dipped below that level in the last month), but by the close it had rallied over $2 and closed within 10c of its session high.

The Oil and Gas Index (XOI) slid 7.76 points (0.95%), closing at 809.02

• Exxon Mobil (XOM) -$2.38 (4.08%) to $56.00;
• Occidental Petroleum (OXY) -$2.24 (3.22%) to $67.30; and
• Marathon Oil (MRO) -$1.39 (2.94%) to $45.86.

The Oil service stocks (OSX) Index declined 2.13 points (1.62%), to end the session at 129.25

• Global Industries (GLBL) -$0.46 (4.55%) to $9.66;
• National Oilwells/Varco (NOV) -$1.26 (3.05%) to $40.04; and
• Halliburton (HAL) -$1.21 (2.83%) to $41.55.

Energy Complex
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Reuters CRB	304.4	-1.48	-0.48%
Crude Oil Light Sweet	52.12	0.77	1.5%
Heating Oil	1.4935	0.02	1.6%
Natural Gas	6.79	0.04	0.62%
Unleaded Gas	1.549	0.01	0.91%
AMEX Oil Index	809.02	-7.76	-0.95%
Oil Service Index	129.25	-2.13	-1.62%

Currency Markets

USD Exchange Rates
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
US Dollar Index	84.38	0.21	0.25%
Euro	1.289	-0.0039	-0.3%
Yen	106.04	0.32	0.3%
Sterling	1.9062	0.0008	0.04%
Australian Dollar	0.7788	0.0027	0.35%
Swiss Franc	1.193	0.0006	0.05%
Canadian Dollar	0.7987	-0.0017	-0.21%

OzRant: Did I Mention I Hate Brokers?...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

Every now and then, stuff happens that points out just how flagrantly the institutional industry toys with the markets - regulators and so on be damned. It's fine for the closing print in major regional markets to be the result of obvious tinkering, but if some dill on the Web says "Buy" without a license, ASIC rips him a new bunghole.

I suppose it ought to be obvious - since ASIC is the government's beyatch, and the government is made up of people who think that brokers are worth having lunch with. It makes me mad, even if it doesn't affect me directly...

Major Market Indices

The broad market - the ASX All Ordinaries - fell by 12.20 points (-0.31%), finishing at 3975.30 points. The index hit an intraday high of 3987.50 at 11 a.m., and its low was 3967.4 and was set at about 3:30 Sydney time. Then a very odd thing happened in the last few minutes - the All Ords stacked on half a dozen points within minutes of the closing bell. In other words, some insto played funny-buggers with the closing print - probably an 'axe' (a large option writer) making sure that some puts died worthless I've no idea of the expiration schedule for Australian derivatives, but that's the sort of crap that results in closing-print manipulation... that said, Japan did it too, so maybe there's some other reason.

Total volume traded on the ASX was 0.89 billion units, 2.4% above its 10-day average. Of the 483 stocks in the index, 216 fell while 136 managed a gain. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of 1.9:1, with 289.79million shares traded in losers while 154.64million shares traded in they days gainers ..

The Index that forms the cash basis for the SFE's Share Price Index Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 - fell by 7.40 points (-0.18%), finishing at 4011.60 points.

The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX 20 Leaders - rose by 1.50 points (0.07%), finishing at 2172.70 points. Think "Banks and Telstra", and you've pretty much got the day sorted. Although the headline index showed a (small) gain, it was more a result of the pattern of moves rather than a genuine 'advance' in the index. As the name implies, the index contains 20 of the biggest stocks in the market. Today, only 8 of them rose, while 11 fell and Woolworths was unchanged.

Further indicating that it was a compositional effect rather than a "fair dinkum" rise, is the fact that total volume in rising issues within the ASX20 amounted to 55.93 million units, while volume in the losers totalled 75.34 million units. The decliners won everywhere except on the final scoreboard - it is like a team that gets 40% more kicks, but fewer points on the board. Too bad...

The major winners in the "big guns" were -

• ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +$0.56 (2.64%) to $21.80 on volume of 13.82m shares;
• Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC), +$0.47 (2.48%) to $19.45 on volume of 9.03m shares;
• National Australia Bank (NAB), +$0.53 (1.83%) to $29.48 on volume of 6.09m shares;
• Telstra Corporation (TLS), +$0.07 (1.44%) to $4.93 on volume of 13.51m shares; and
• St George Bank (SGB), +$0.31 (1.28%) to $24.51 on volume of 1.81m shares.

The following stocks made up the biggest percentage losers in the big-guns:

• Woodside Petroleum (WPL), -$0.94 (3.81%) to $23.75 on volume of 2.62m shares;
• BHP Billiton (BHP), -$0.51 (3.06%) to $16.14 on volume of 34.18m shares;
• Amcor (AMC), -$0.14 (2.09%) to $6.55 on volume of 6.17m shares;
• AMP Limited (AMP), -$0.12 (1.76%) to $6.70 on volume of 5.89m shares; and
• Rio Tinto (RIO), -$0.75 (1.75%) to $42.10 on volume of 4.37m shares.

At the smaller end of the market's capitalisation scale, the ASX Small Ordinaries Index fell by 4.60 points (-0.21%), finishing at 2201.20 points. The major winners in the "pop-guns" were -

• G.U.D. Holdings (GUD), +$0.74 (13.81%) to $6.10 on volume of 688,000 shares;
• Ventracor (VCR), +$0.08 (10.39%) to $0.85 on volume of 2.27m shares;
• Just Group (JST), +$0.13 (5.91%) to $2.33 on volume of 1.89m shares;
• Metabolic Pharmaceuticals (MBP), +$0.04 (5.6%) to $0.66 on volume of 265,000 shares; and
• Coffey International (COF), +$0.11 (5.19%) to $2.23 on volume of 38,000 shares.

The losingest-little-guys for the session were (in order of decline):

• Dragon Mining (DRA), -$0.02 (7.89%) to $0.18 on volume of 862,000 shares;
• Silex Systems (SLX), -$0.07 (7.65%) to $0.79 on volume of 127,000 shares; and
• Giants Reef Mining (GTM), -$0.00 (6.67%) to $0.03 on volume of 6.57m shares;
• Agenix (AGX), -$0.02 (6.25%) to $0.30 on volume of 469,000 shares; and
• Village Life Ltd (VLL), -$0.07 (5.26%) to $1.26 on volume of 1.5m shares.

Index Changes
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XAO	All Ordinaries	3975.3	-12.2	-0.31%	2147.493
XTL	S&P/ASX 20	2172.7	1.5	0.07%	134.02m
XFL	S&P/ASX 50	3966.6	-4.1	-0.1%	0
XTO	S&P/ASX 100	3266.8	-6.4	-0.2%	0
XJO	S&P/ASX 200	4011.6	-7.4	-0.18%	464.18m
XKO	S&P/ASX 300	4007.8	-7.8	-0.19%	0
XMD	S&P/ASX Mid-Cap 50	3885.3	-28	-0.72%	0
XSO	S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries	2201.2	-4.6	-0.21%	134.18m

All Ordinaries Market Internals

Market Breadth
	XAO	XJO	XSO	ASX20	Market
Advances	136	74	62	8	333
Declines	216	98	94	11	547
Advancing Volume	154.64m	140.08m	36.98m	55.93	250.47
Declining Volume	289.79m	260.51m	60.31m	75.34	459.58

S&P/ASX200 GICS Sector Indices

The top sector for the day was Telecommunications which gained 1.27% to 1759.20 points - in other words, Telstra went up.

• Telstra Corporation. (TLS), +$0.07 (1.44%) to $4.93 on volume of 13.43m shares;
• Telecom Corporation Of New Zealand (TEL), +$0.02 (0.36%) to $5.62 on volume of 1.76m shares.

Second in the sector leadership stakes was ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts which gained 1.03% to 4957.70 points. The sector contains 27, and less than half (12) rose while 11 fell. The big banks all rose, which gives the impression of a strong sector performance. Volume was tilted in favour of the gainers by a margin of 1.8:1, with 36.45 million shares traded in gainers while 19.91 million shares changed hands in the sector's losers. The sector leaders were -

• ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +$0.56 (2.64%) to $21.80 on volume of 13.44m shares;
• Record Investments (RCD), +$0.12 (2.52%) to $4.89 on volume of 511,000 shares;
• Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC), +$0.47 (2.48%) to $19.45 on volume of 8.66m shares;
• National Australia Bank (NAB), +$0.53 (1.83%) to $29.48 on volume of 5.96m shares; and
• Tower (TWR), +$0.03 (1.5%) to $1.70 on volume of 490,000 shares.

The bronze today went to Financials which gained 0.76% to 4882.70 points. The sector was led by

• ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +$0.56 (2.64%) to $21.80 on volume of 13.44m shares;
• Record Investments (RCD), +$0.12 (2.52%) to $4.89 on volume of 511,000 shares;
• Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC), +$0.47 (2.48%) to $19.45 on volume of 8.66m shares;
• National Australia Bank (NAB), +$0.53 (1.83%) to $29.48 on volume of 5.96m shares; and
• Valad Property Group (VPG), +$0.02 (1.62%) to $1.26 on volume of 4.83m shares.

The worst-performed sector today was Information Technology which lost 2.27% to 352.30 points. Of the 7 stocks in the sector, 4 fell while 3 rose for the session. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a whopping margin of 16.7:1, with 10.77million shares traded in losers while just 640 thousand shares were traded in the sector's winners. The sector was dragged lower by

• Computershare (CPU), -$0.21 (3.88%) to $5.20 on volume of 7.81m shares;
• ERG (ERG), -$0.01 (1.92%) to $0.26 on volume of 2.1m shares;
• Baycorp Advantage (BCA), -$0.03 (1.02%) to $2.91 on volume of 538,000 shares;
• MYOB (MYO), -$0.01 (0.94%) to $1.05 on volume of 313,000 shares; and
• Infomedia Ltd (IFM), +$0.01 (0.98%) to $0.52 on volume of 261,000 shares.

Just in front of last place on the sector table was Energy which lost 2.02% to 7990.10 points, thanks to the overnight drop in Crude Oil prices. So much for 'forward looking' markets (you will all know that I think that financial markets are not populated with bright people, and as such don't look forward at all... they are sideways looking, at best).

Of the 11 stocks in the sector, 8 fell while 3 managed a gain. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of 9:1, with 19.21 million shares traded in losers while 2.15 million shares changed hands in the gainers. The sector was pulled down by

• Oil Search (OSH), -$0.11 (4.49%) to $2.34 on volume of 8.05m shares;
• Tap Oil (TAP), -$0.08 (4.17%) to $1.84 on volume of 793,000 shares; and
• Woodside Petroleum (WPL), -$0.94 (3.81%) to $23.75 on volume of 2.62m shares;
• Australian Worldwide Exploration (AWE), -$0.05 (2.63%) to $1.67 on volume of 1.38m shares; and
• Hardman Resources (HDR), -$0.05 (2.51%) to $1.75 on volume of 2.55m shares.

Sector Indices
Code	GICS Sector	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XTJ	Telecommunications	1759.2	22.1	1.27%	15.19m
XXJ	ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts	4957.7	50.4	1.03%	72.8m
XFJ	Financials	4882.7	36.9	0.76%	135.73m
XUJ	Utilities	4803.6	35	0.73%	3.61m
XPJ	Property Trusts	1762.9	-2.8	-0.16%	67.75m
XSJ	Consumer Staples	5348.6	-11.3	-0.21%	35.54m
XHJ	Healthcare	4690.2	-25.4	-0.54%	8.74m
XDJ	Consumer Discretionary	2075.2	-12.1	-0.58%	45.11m
XNJ	Industrials	4829.2	-31.4	-0.65%	53.97m
XMJ	Materials	6616.3	-128.5	-1.91%	126.54m
XEJ	Energy	7990.1	-164.8	-2.02%	21.36m
XIJ	Information Technology	352.3	-8.2	-2.27%	11.41m

All Ordinaries Major Movers

All Ords Volume Leaders
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
BHP	BHP Billiton	16.14	-0.51	-3.06%	33.89m
LHG	Lihir Gold	1	-0.07	-6.1%	14.24m
ANZ	Australia And New Zealand Banking Group	21.8	0.56	2.64%	13.44m
TLS	Telstra Corporation.	4.93	0.07	1.44%	13.43m
MAP	Macquarie Airports	3.38	0.08	2.42%	13.43m
SBM	St Barbara Mines	0.12	0	0%	13.19m

All Ords Percentage Gainers
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
GUD	G.U.D. Holdings	6.1	0.74	13.81%	687808
PBT	Prana Biotechnology	0.17	0.02	13.79%	804600
VCR	Ventracor	0.85	0.08	10.39%	2.27m
JST	Just Group	2.33	0.13	5.91%	1.89m
MBP	Metabolic Pharmaceuticals	0.66	0.04	5.6%	264620

All Ords Percentage Decliners
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
MST	Metal Storm	0.14	-0.02	-12.5%	2.06m
BOC	Bougainville Copper	0.95	-0.11	-10%	73597
UNW	Unwired Group	0.38	-0.04	-8.43%	459855
GFD	Green's Foods	0.58	-0.05	-7.94%	202963
DRA	Dragon Mining	0.18	-0.02	-7.89%	862241

Elsewhere in the Region...

After opening under 11,000, Japan's Nikkei 225 dipped to 10892.71 points by 10:20 Tokyo time, then started to rally. By the close it was up 3.48 points (0.03%), closing at 11008.9 points - also its session high. The index spent a good deal of the day under 11000. As with the Australian market, there was a very suspicious uptick in the last five minutes, which saw the Japanese market rocket over 50 points in the very closing stages of the session. Dodgy as...

The Kiwi Market advanced 9.76 points (0.33%). It was another day of utter tedium in the markets on the Land of the Long White Cloud - the day's range only barely managed to hit double digits. The index hit a high of 2972.384 during the session, after briefly dipping to 2958.573 points early in the session.

A total of 21 stocks within the NZSE50 rose, with volume in advancers totalling 6.7million units. Decliners numbered 21, and total volume traded in losers was 12.5million shares. Individual stocks that rose included...

• APN News & Media (APN), +NZ$0.34 (7.08%) to NZ$5.14 on volume of 303,000 shares;
• Sky Network Television (SKY), +NZ$0.23 (3.73%) to NZ$6.40 on volume of 83,000 shares;
• Freightways (FRE), +NZ$0.08 (3.05%) to NZ$2.70 on volume of 374,000 shares;
• Trustpower (TPW), +NZ$0.15 (2.94%) to NZ$5.25 on volume of 17,000 shares;
• Restaurant Brands (RBD), +NZ$0.03 (2.33%) to NZ$1.32 on volume of 421,000 shares; and
• ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +NZ$0.49 (2.16%) to NZ$23.20 on volume of 70,000 shares.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced 51.72 points (0.37%) to 13891.36 points. The index surged in the first half-hour, from an opening level (and session low) of about 13813.68 to a high of 13907.54 in just twenty minutes. Once the session's range had been set, it was just sideways into lunch (it's still at lunch as I write)..

Within the Hang Seng, 25 index components rose, while 3 stocks fell. Volume in the gainers in Hong Kong's big-cap index totalled 99 million units, and total volume traded in losers was 32.1 million shares. Individual stocks that contributed to the advance included...

• Yue Yuen Industries (0551), +HK$0.65 (3.1%) to HK$21.60 on volume of 1.85m shares;
• Henderson Investment (0097), +HK$0.20 (1.83%) to HK$11.10 on volume of 912,000 shares;
• China Merchant Holdings (0144), +HK$0.25 (1.64%) to HK$15.50 on volume of 1.42m shares;
• Li & Fung (0494), +HK$0.20 (1.34%) to HK$15.10 on volume of 4.07m shares;
• China Mobile (0941), +HK$0.30 (1.14%) to HK$26.65 on volume of 16.6m shares; and
• PCCW (0008), +HK$0.05 (1.1%) to HK$4.60 on volume of 11.63m shares.

Regional Indices
Country	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
New Zealand	NZSE50	2968.329	9.76	0.33%	20.14m
Japan	Nikkei 225	11008.9	3.48	0.03%	105619
Korea	KOSPI	917.73	-12.43	-1.34%	361669
Singapore	Straits Times	2136.35	-8.99	-0.42%	0
Hong Kong	Hang Seng	13891.36	51.72	0.37%	145.17m
Malaysia	KLSE Comp	874.36	1.91	0.22%	0

USRant: Markets-A-Go-Go (or a-Yo-Yo)...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

Despite a repo that looked unlikely to set the markets on fire, things went up relatively solidly after looking pretty soft after the open. The softness was easy to understand after a genuinely woeful set of data on Durable Goods - the headline number in the Durable Goods report was a decline of 2.8% (compared to the consensus guess of +0.3% and a consensus range of -2% to +1.5%). the key category (non-defence capital goods, ex aircraft) was a stinker too; shipments dropped 1.1% for the month, and new orders for the category tanked 4.7%... tell me again about this supposed economic recovery that shills like Larry Kudlow are trumpeting? It's going to happen without new capital goods, obviously...

Then again (thinking now about the repo amount) you can bet your bottom dollar that the Fed's OMO desk knew full well that the Crude Oil inventories data was going to be interpreted as positive. With every screen jockey, ticker-junkie and ticket clipper now watching oil markets, the uptick in crude inventories was always going to provide its own zing to equities. That's especially true since most of them couldn't spell "Non-defence Capital Goods ex-Aircraft".

Federal Reserve Open Market Operations

The Fed's Open Market Operations desk performed 1 repurchase operation.

• a $6billion, overnight repurchase with $5billion in T-backed collateral .

Major US Indices

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.67 points (0.47%), closing out the day at 10198.8 points. With the T-backed repo meeting the $5b market-goosing requirement, the expected time-low for the Dow was 10 a.m.: and the actual low for the session was set at 10:20 (but was only 5 points below the 10 a.m. level). At that point, the Dow was trading at 10079.45 - from there the market rose 140 points in less than three hours, setting an intraday high of 10219.56 at about 1:10 p.m. NY time.

Within the blue-chip index, 22 stocks rose, the biggest gainers being Verizon Communications (VZ, +3.59% to $35.22) and International Business Machines (IBM, +2.15% to $77.05), which accounted for 21 Dow points between them. Losers in the Dow numbered 8 and were led by Exxon Mobil (XOM, -1.50% to $58.38) and Hewlett Packard (HPQ, -1.47% to $20.17), with these two stocks contributing -9 Dow points worth of downward pressure on the index. Volume traded was tilted in favour of the gainers by 279.1m shares to 71.4m.

The broader S&P500 rose 4.64 points (0.4%), to 1156.38. Within the index, gainers numbered 300, while 193 S&P500 stocks fell for the day. Volume was tilted 1.3:1 in favour of the winners with 1.08 billion units traded in the winners as compared with 821.06 million traded in the losers .

Over at Times Square, the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.99 points (0.16%), to close at 1930.43, while larger-cap technology issues fared better with the Nasdaq100 adding 3.33 points (0.23%), to end at 1423.76 points. Within the tech benchmark, gainers numbered 56, while 44 Nasdaq100 stocks fell for the day. Volume was tilted 1.3:1 in favour of the losers with 469.03 million traded in the winners compared to 375.21 million in the losers .

NYSE Volume was super-chunky, with 2.11 billion shares changing hands, while Nasdaq Volume was chunky, with 1.81 billion shares traded.

Major Market Statistics
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Dow Jones Industrial Average	10198.8	47.67	0.47%
S&P500	1156.38	4.64	0.4%
Nasdaq Composite	1930.43	2.99	0.16%
Nasdaq100	1423.76	3.33	0.23%
NYSE Volume	2.11bn	-	-
Nasdaq Volume	1.81bn	-	-

Bellwethers

My 9-stock "bellwethers" group rose by an average of 1.07%

• General Electric (GE) +$0.22 (0.61%) to $36.40;
• Citigroup (C) +$0.43 (0.92%) to $47.05;
• Wal Mart (WMT) +$0.29 (0.62%) to $47.29;
• I.B.M. (IBM) +$1.62 (2.15%) to $77.05;
• Intel (INTC) +$0.19 (0.81%) to $23.51;
• Cisco Systems (CSCO) -$0.03 (0.17%) to $17.25;
• eBay (EBAY) +$0.34 (1.09%) to $31.48;
• Fannie Mae (FNM) +$1.10 (2.1%) to $53.48; and
• Freddie Mac (FRE) +$0.92 (1.51%) to $61.74.

Market Breadth & Internals

NYSE advancing Issues exceeded decliners by 1757 to 1515 for a single-day A/D reading of 242; and Nasdaq losers exceeded gainers by 1689 to 1360. The 10-day moving average of the A/D line rose to -38.4 on the NYSE, while the 10dma of the Nasdaq A/D rose to -343.2.

NYSE advancing volume exceeded volume in decliners by 1068.6 to 978.7 million shares; On the Nasdaq declining volume exceeded volume in advancing issues by 904.7 to 838.5 million shares.

41 NYSE-listed stocks rose to new 52-week highs, and 124 posted fresh 52-week lows, while on the Nasdaq there were 27 stocks that hit new 52-week highs, and 203 which fell to fresh 52-week lows.

Market Breadth Statistics
	NYSE	Nasdaq
Advancers	1757	1360
Decliners	1515	1689
Advancing Volume (m)	1068.56	838.47
Declining Volume (m)	978.7	904.7
New Highs	41	27
New Lows	124	203

Market Sentiment Statistics
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
CBOE Volatility Index	14.87	-0.09	-0.6%
CBOE Nasdaq Volatility Index	18.77	0	0%
Equity Put-Call Ratio	0.95	0.27	39.71%
10-day PCR	0.75	0.05	6.91%
SPX-VIX Ratio	77.8	0.78	1.01%

Bond Market Analysis

Bonds rose at the long end, with the yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond shedding 1.4 basis points to 4.553%.

The middle of the yield curve was broadly higher: five year yields fell to 3.921%, and ten-year yields fell to 4.237%. Treasury duration spreads are getting ridiculous - 61 bps from 20years to 10-years, and less than a percentage point between 2-years and 30-years.

A lot of people get worried when the yield curve inverts - considering it a precursor of recession. It's a rule of thumb that actually gives you good signals, but if you look at history it shows that yield curves invert in about the same quarter as the recession starts (as defined by the Economic Cycle Dating Committee, usually a year after the fact).

In reality, the best heads up that can be had from the yield curve (and the only yield curve indicator you ever need) is the spread from 2-year notes to 10-year bonds. If it's under 1.25% for more than 30 days, the economy is in recession.

Spreads between short-dated (2-yr) Treasuries and high-grade corporate bonds of similar maturity profiles were 2.0 basis points tighter at 10 basis points; spreads between longer dated Treasuries and their corporate AAA counterparts fell to 57.0 bps for 10-year AAA, and 80.0 bps for 20-years.

Credit spreads (spreads between corporate bonds of the same maturity profile but different creditworthiness) were mixed with the AAA-A spread on 20-years 9.0 bps looser at 53.0 basis points and the 10-year AAA-A spread 1 bp tighter at 1.0 basis points.

Treasury Yields
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
UST 13wk (yld)	2.82	0	0%
UST 2Y (yld)	3.61	-0.03	-0.82%
UST 5Y (yld)	3.921	-0.033	-0.83%
UST 10Y (yld)	4.237	-0.03	-0.7%
UST 30Y (yld)	4.553	-0.014	-0.31%

The Banks Index added 1.22 points (1.27%), ending the day at 97.09; within the index,

• M&T Bank Corp (MTB) +$2.86 (2.83%) to $103.75;
• National City Corp (NCC) +$0.89 (2.7%) to $33.86;
• BB&T Corp (BBT) +$0.81 (2.12%) to $39.06;
• Golden West Financial (GDW) +$1.31 (2.1%) to $63.66; and
• Washington Mutual (WM) +$0.82 (2.01%) to $41.57.

The Broker-dealer Index posted a rise of 1.51 points (1.1%), ending the day at 138.65; the ticket clippers lined up as follows -

• Charles Schwab (SCH) +$0.20 (1.97%) to $10.34;
• Goldman Sachs (GS) +$2.04 (1.93%) to $107.76;
• Merrill Lynch (MER) +$1.00 (1.87%) to $54.50;
• Raymond James (RJF) +$0.46 (1.72%) to $27.25; and
• Jeffries Group (JEF) +$0.61 (1.69%) to $36.73.

The Philadelphia SOX (Semiconductor) index dipped 0.89 points (0.23%), to end the session at 387.73

• ST Microelectronic (STM) -$0.87 (5.57%) to $14.74;
• Marvell Tech Group (MRVL) -$0.51 (1.49%) to $33.65;
• KLA-Tencor (KLAC) -$0.41 (1%) to $40.50;
• Broadcom (BRCM) -$0.30 (0.99%) to $29.90; and
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) -$0.11 (0.75%) to $14.51.

Gold & Silver Markets

Gold fell by $4.90 (1.12%) to close at $433 per ounce. As with pretty much every market, the turn happened at 10 a.m., with the arrival of the repo dough in big-house pockets. It's pretty clear that someone was given a heads-up about the oil data, because the data prior to the oil inventory report was a picture of an economy whose only growth mechanism is housing refinance.

For those playing at home, if your only growth mechanism is housing refinance, that's a bad thing. When almost half of all new mortgages are adjustable rate, and more than a quarter are interest only, it means that the marginal house buyer sets prices based on highly suspect arithmetic (i.e., people use ARMS and interest-only to scale up the house size of the house rather than scaling down the repayment on a given house). As these buyers enter the market, it is their overpaying that is setting house prices on fire, and fuelling the equity cash-out craze.

That little vignette belongs somewhere other than the Gold area, but too bad...

Gold Bugs Index shed 5.88 points (3.18%), closing at 178.89

• Newmont Mining (NEM) -$2.55 (6.34%) to $37.70;
• Glamis Gold (GLG) -$0.84 (5.74%) to $13.79;
• Coeur d'Alene (CDE) -$0.19 (5.64%) to $3.18;
• Eldorado Gold (EGO) -$0.11 (4.51%) to $2.33; and
• Goldcorp (GG) -$0.60 (4.42%) to $12.99.

Silver fell by $0.12 (1.61%) to close at $7.13 per ounce. The Gold and Silver Index (XAU) lost 3.5 points (4.02%), to end the session at 83.55 points.

• Newmont Mining (NEM) -$2.55 (6.34%) to $37.70;
• Placer Dome (PDG) -$0.79 (5.41%) to $13.80;
• Goldcorp (GG) -$0.60 (4.42%) to $12.99; and
• Meridian Gold (MDG) -$0.64 (4.01%) to $15.33.

Precious Metals and Indices
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Gold	433.00	-4.90	-1.12%
Silver	7.13	-0.12	-1.61%
PHLX Gold and Silver Index	83.55	-3.5	-4.02%
AMEX Gold BUGS Index	178.89	-5.88	-3.18%

Oil Market

Oil dropped like a rock after the EIA Petroleum Status Report which reported a 5.5 million barrel increase in crude oil inventories. Front-month crude fell $2.93 per barrel (5.4%), closing at $51.35 per barrel - which is really quiet strange since the inventories data weren't actually that good.

After all, Gasoline inventories are more important than Crude inventories, because the bottleneck between crude inventories and the gas tank is that current lack of refining capacity. Gasoline inventories actually fell - and I'm not aware of anybody stupid enough to fill up their SUVs with straight crude.

The Oil and Gas Index (XOI) dipped 20.75 points (2.48%), to end the session at 816.78

• Amerada Hess (AHC) -$3.40 (3.56%) to $92.10;
• Occidental Petroleum (OXY) -$2.38 (3.31%) to $69.54; and
• ChevronTexaco (CVX) -$1.62 (3.02%) to $52.00.

The Oil service stocks (OSX) Index dipped 4.52 points (3.33%), at 131.38

• Tidewater (TDW) -$1.53 (4.2%) to $34.91;
• BJ Services (BJS) -$2.16 (4.15%) to $49.84; and
• Nabors Industries (NBR) -$2.36 (4.08%) to $55.46.

Energy Complex
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
Reuters CRB	305.88	-3.9	-1.26%
Crude Oil Light Sweet	51.35	-2.93	-5.4%
Heating Oil	1.47	-0.04	-2.97%
Natural Gas	6.748	-0.4	-5.62%
Unleaded Gas	1.535	-0.09	-5.77%
AMEX Oil Index	816.78	-20.75	-2.48%
Oil Service Index	131.38	-4.52	-3.33%

Currency Markets

The USDX fell as low as 83.87 after the awful Durable Goods data, but had already started to bounce a half-hour before the Crude Oil Inventories numbers were released. Every market absolutely reeked of information leakage; equities, Gold, Oil, currencies... they all started their big intraday moves at 10 a.m., but the oil data wasn't released until 10:30.

USD Exchange Rates
Index	Close	Gain(Loss)	%
US Dollar Index	84.17	0.19	0.23%
Euro	1.2929	-0.0058	-0.45%
Yen	105.72	-0.28	-0.26%
Sterling	1.9054	-0.0008	-0.04%
Australian Dollar	0.7761	-0.002	-0.26%
Swiss Franc	1.1924	0.006	0.51%
Canadian Dollar	0.8004	-0.0024	-0.3%

OzRant: A Whole Lotta Nuthin...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

The regional undercurrents reveal a set of markets that are too tentative to do anything but mark time; nobody is willing to punt on a sustained decline, but nobody is prepared to buy the open either.

The crux of the issue remains the fact that global equities markets are priced for very low nominal future returns; either that, or people's time preference discount factor is falling almost to zero (implying a very low level of required rate of return on deferred consumption)... as I've said before, such a hypothesis is utterly inconsistent with their expenditure patterns.

So what do we have? Global equity markets that are trading at earnings multiples that are closer to levels experienced in 1929 ans 2000 than they are to genuine cycle lows (like 1982); couple that with a massive re-liquification campaign byu the US central bank, and a US government that's spending like a Marine in a Hanoi whorehouse, and you've got a recipe for disaster... once-in-3-lifetimes style.

 

Major Market Indices

The broad market - the ASX All Ordinaries - fell by 11.60 points (-0.29%), finishing at 3987.50 points. The index hit an intraday high of 3999.10 (i.e., at the open) and its low was 3968.8; at the moment that the All Ords hit 3968-ish, the ASX200 was touching (and briefly penetrating) 4000. That was twenty minutes after the market opened, and from there the All Ords bounced 25 points before lunchtime. After a sedcond failure to get back to the opening level, the index dropped back below 3980 until a little spurt in the alst 20 minutes allowed a close with some dignity.

Total volume traded on the ASX was soft at just under 800 million units, 8.3% below its 10-day average. Of the 483 stocks in the index, 244 fell while 121 managed a gain. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of 1.3:1, with 239.3 million shares traded in losers compared with 177.6 million shares traded in they days gainers ..

The Index that forms the cash basis for the SFE's Share Price Index Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 - fell by 8.80 points (-0.22%), finishing at 4019.00 points.

The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX 20 Leaders - rose by 0.60 points (0.03%), finishing at 2171.20 points. Within the index members, there were 8 that rose, and 12 losers. Total volume in rising issues within the ASX20 amounted to 58.53m units while volume in the losers totalled 60.35m units.

The major winners in the "big guns" were largley 'defensives' - although even these are now overpriced -

• ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +$0.50 (2.41%) to $21.24 on volume of 7.96m shares;
• Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC), +$0.33 (1.77%) to $18.98 on volume of 6.11m shares;
• Woolworths (WOW), +$0.11 (0.72%) to $15.40 on volume of 2.43m shares;
• Telstra Corporation (TLS), +$0.03 (0.62%) to $4.86 on volume of 21.82m shares; and
• Westfield Group (WDC), +$0.10 (0.62%) to $16.24 on volume of 5.62m shares.

The stocks that made up the biggest percentage losers in the big-guns also included defensive stocks:

• Amcor (AMC), -$0.14 (2.05%) to $6.69 on volume of 6.37m shares;
• Foster's Group (FGL), -$0.10 (1.88%) to $5.23 on volume of 8.12m shares;
• Wesfarmers (WES), -$0.67 (1.8%) to $36.63 on volume of 1.33m shares;
• BHP Billiton (BHP), -$0.24 (1.42%) to $16.65 on volume of 21.07m shares; and
• AMP Limited (AMP), -$0.09 (1.3%) to $6.82 on volume of 5.18m shares.

At the smaller end of the market's capitalisation scale, the ASX Small Ordinaries Index fell by 18.70 points (-0.84%), finishing at 2205.80 points. The major winners in the "pop-guns" were -

• SDI (SDI), +$0.06 (6.59%) to $0.97 on volume of 136,000 shares;
• Nylex (NLX), +$0.02 (5.26%) to $0.30 on volume of 2.8m shares;
• Austal (ASB), +$0.08 (5%) to $1.68 on volume of 235,000 shares;
• Orbital Corporation (OEC), +$0.01 (5%) to $0.11 on volume of 94,000 shares; and
• Perilya (PEM), +$0.05 (5%) to $0.95 on volume of 328,000 shares.

The losingest-little-guys for the session were (in order of decline):

• Sirtex Medical (SRX), -$0.17 (11.97%) to $1.25 on volume of 8,000 shares;
• Bendigo Mining (BDG), -$0.09 (7.59%) to $1.04 on volume of 553,000 shares; and
• Just Group (JST), -$0.17 (7.17%) to $2.20 on volume of 2.63m shares;
• AAV (AVV), -$0.07 (5.98%) to $1.10 on volume of 256,000 shares; and
• Brazin (BRZ), -$0.11 (5.43%) to $1.83 on volume of 165,000 shares.

Index Changes
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XAO	All Ordinaries	3987.5	-11.6	-0.29%	2156.506
XTL	S&P/ASX 20	2171.2	0.6	0.03%	118.89m
XFL	S&P/ASX 50	3970.7	-4.9	-0.12%	0
XTO	S&P/ASX 100	3273.2	-5.5	-0.17%	0
XJO	S&P/ASX 200	4019	-8.8	-0.22%	441.13m
XKO	S&P/ASX 300	4015.6	-9.3	-0.23%	0
XMD	S&P/ASX Mid-Cap 50	3913.3	-16.9	-0.43%	0
XSO	S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries	2205.8	-18.7	-0.84%	127.2m

All Ordinaries Market Internals

Market Breadth
	XAO	XJO	XSO	ASX20	Market
Advances	121	57	46	8	306
Declines	244	117	110	12	543
Advancing Volume	177.57m	160.54m	31.49m	58.53	250.54
Declining Volume	239.26m	215.7m	65.64m	60.35	428.86

S&P/ASX200 GICS Sector Indices

The top sector for the day was ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts which gained 0.48% to 4907.30 points. Of the 27 stocks in the sector, 16 fell while 9 managed a gain. Volume was barely tilted in favour of the gainers by a margin of 1.1:1, with 23.81 million shares traded in gainers compared with 21.43 million shares traded in losers. The sector was helped by the major banks -

• ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +$0.50 (2.41%) to $21.24 on volume of 7.96m shares;
• Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC), +$0.33 (1.77%) to $18.98 on volume of 6.11m shares;
• Australand Property Group (ALZ), +$0.02 (0.95%) to $1.60 on volume of 1.65m shares;
• Lend Lease Corporation (LLC), +$0.10 (0.83%) to $12.22 on volume of 957,000 shares; and
• National Australia Bank (NAB), +$0.14 (0.49%) to $28.95 on volume of 3.55m shares.

Second in the sector leadership stakes was Financials which gained 0.48% to 4845.80 points. That's basically double counting, since XFJ is just XXJ with all the boring crap (the Property Trusts) added back. The sector leaders were -

• ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +$0.50 (2.41%) to $21.24 on volume of 7.96m shares;
• Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC), +$0.33 (1.77%) to $18.98 on volume of 6.11m shares;
• Bunnings Warehouse Property Trust (BWP), +$0.03 (1.45%) to $1.75 on volume of 88,000 shares;
• ING Office Fund (IOF), +$0.02 (1.21%) to $1.25 on volume of 2.47m shares; and
• Stockland (SGP), +$0.06 (1.03%) to $5.88 on volume of 3.02m shares.

The bronze today went to Telecommunications which gained 0.47% to 1737.10 points. This sector, you will recall, contins only 2 stocks and is therefore a joke. Usually it moves in the same direction as its major component (Telstra) except for the blindingly rare event when Telecom NZ's share price moves by enough to countermand Telstra's move. Those days are almost as rare as an honest NeoTrot (the difference being that TEL has once overwhelmed TLS's move, but I've never seen any record of an honest neoTrot).

• Telstra Corporation. (TLS), +$0.03 (0.62%) to $4.86 on volume of 21.82m shares;
• Telecom Corporation Of New Zealand (TEL), -$0.02 (0.36%) to $5.60 on volume of 1.81m shares.

The worst-performed sector today was Materials which lost 1.35% to 6744.80 points. Of the 37 stocks in the sector, 30 fell while 5 managed a gain. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of 4.8:1, with 87.81million shares traded in losers while 18.12million shares traded in gainers. The sector was dragged lower by

• Nufarm (NUF), -$0.43 (4.37%) to $9.41 on volume of 148,000 shares;
• Newcrest Mining (NCM), -$0.60 (3.87%) to $14.90 on volume of 3.56m shares; and
• Orica (ORI), -$0.65 (3.77%) to $16.60 on volume of 2.06m shares;
• Gunns (GNS), -$0.15 (3.7%) to $3.90 on volume of 539,000 shares; and
• Smorgon Steel Group (SSX), -$0.04 (3.25%) to $1.19 on volume of 1.2m shares.

Just in front of last place on the sector table was Consumer Discretionary which lost 0.87% to 2087.30 points. Of the 29 stocks in the sector, 22 fell while 6 managed a gain. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of 4.7:1, with 33.97million shares traded in losers while 7.29million shares traded in gainers. The sector was pulled down by another 1% decline in New Corpse, but it wasn't even in the top 5 losers...

• Just Group (JST), -$0.17 (7.17%) to $2.20 on volume of 2.63m shares;
• Austereo Group (AEO), -$0.08 (4.52%) to $1.59 on volume of 78,000 shares; and
• JB Hi-Fi (JBH), -$0.15 (4.36%) to $3.29 on volume of 789,000 shares;
• G.U.D. Holdings (GUD), -$0.24 (4.29%) to $5.36 on volume of 474,000 shares; and
• Seven Network (SEV), -$0.26 (3.65%) to $6.86 on volume of 299,000 shares.

Sector Indices
Code	GICS Sector	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XXJ	ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts	4907.3	23.4	0.48%	60.82m
XFJ	Financials	4845.8	23	0.48%	134.56m
XTJ	Telecommunications	1737.1	8.1	0.47%	23.63m
XPJ	Property Trusts	1765.7	8.1	0.46%	79.36m
XUJ	Utilities	4768.6	7.7	0.16%	4.88m
XIJ	Information Technology	360.5	-0.3	-0.08%	4.43m
XEJ	Energy	8154.9	-12.1	-0.15%	18.46m
XSJ	Consumer Staples	5359.9	-15.9	-0.3%	48.31m
XHJ	Healthcare	4715.6	-36.3	-0.76%	8.1m
XNJ	Industrials	4860.6	-38.8	-0.79%	48.94m
XDJ	Consumer Discretionary	2087.3	-18.3	-0.87%	41.56m
XMJ	Materials	6744.8	-92.1	-1.35%	106.08m

All Ordinaries Major Movers

All Ords Volume Leaders
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
TLS	Telstra Corporation.	4.86	0.03	0.62%	21.82m
BHP	BHP Billiton	16.65	-0.24	-1.42%	21.07m
LHG	Lihir Gold	1.07	0.03	2.4%	11.28m
ADY	Admiralty Resources.	0.14	-0.01	-3.45%	10.57m
QAN	Qantas Airways	3.3	-0.04	-1.2%	9.82m
MIG	Macquarie Infrastructure Group	3.66	0.01	0.27%	9.41m

All Ords Percentage Gainers
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
ABI	Ambri	0.16	0.01	6.9%	540100
ORL	Orotongroup	2.68	0.17	6.77%	53675
SDI	SDI	0.97	0.06	6.59%	135910
NLX	Nylex	0.3	0.02	5.26%	2.8m
CMI	Cmi.	1.47	0.07	5%	165142

All Ords Percentage Decliners
Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
BDG	Bendigo Mining	1.04	-0.09	-7.59%	552672
JST	Just Group	2.2	-0.17	-7.17%	2.63m
AVV	AAV	1.1	-0.07	-5.98%	255560
GFD	Green's Foods	0.63	-0.04	-5.97%	146358
TIR	Titan Resources	0.064	-0.004	-5.88%	1.24m

Elsewhere in the Region...

At time of writing, Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 30.41 points (-0.28%) at 11005.42 points. The index hit a high of 11022.44 shortly after returning from its luncheon adjournment, after opening at 10968.58 points. Basically the Nikkei is trying to hold above 11,000 (or at least, within striking distance) and hoping for a North American rally.

The Kiwi Market advanced 5.95 points (0.20%). The indexwas soft for much of the morning, eventually hitting its session low at 2937.465 points at almost exactly 11:30 Auckland time. From there it reversed pretty hard, rising to post its session high at 2958.573 right at the close.

A total of 12 stocks within the NZSE50 rose, with volume in advancers totalling 7.5million units. Decliners numbered 28, and total volume traded in losers was 13.5million shares. Individual stocks that dud well included...

• Carter Holt Harvey (CAH), +NZ$0.07 (3.83%) to NZ$1.90 on volume of 2.3m shares;
• Contact Energy (CEN), +NZ$0.18 (2.68%) to NZ$6.90 on volume of 407,000 shares;
• Auckland International Airport(AIA), +NZ$0.05 (2.55%) to NZ$2.01 on volume of 1.47m shares;
• Fisher & Paykel A (FPA), +NZ$0.06 (2.21%) to NZ$2.77 on volume of 372,000 shares;
• ANZ baking Group (ANZ), +NZ$0.39 (1.75%) to NZ$22.71 on volume of 67,000 shares; and
• Lion Nathan (LNN), +NZ$0.13 (1.68%) to NZ$7.86 on volume of 68,000 shares.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined 29.20 points (-0.21%) at 13830.38. The index hit a high of 13847.39 just after 10:30 HK time, having plumbed its session low at 13801.82 points just ten minutes before the high was set. It's currently at lunch.

Within the Hang Seng, 4 index components rose, while 21 stocks fell. Volume in the gainers in Hong Kong's big-cap index totalled 7.8million units, and total volume traded in losers was 57.5million shares. Individual stocks that contributed to the decline included...

• China Unicom (0762), -HK$0.10 (1.59%) to HK$6.20 on volume of 2.47m shares;
• Cosco Pacific (1199), -HK$0.25 (1.44%) to HK$17.15 on volume of 634,000 shares;
• China Merchant Holdings (0144), -HK$0.20 (1.29%) to HK$15.25 on volume of 2.65m shares;
• Denway Motors (0203), -HK$0.03 (0.93%) to HK$2.65 on volume of 4.86m shares;
• Henderson Investments (0097), -HK$0.10 (0.9%) to HK$11.00 on volume of 161,000 shares; and
• Swire Pacific A (0019), -HK$0.50 (0.76%) to HK$65.00 on volume of 876,000 shares.

Regional Indices
Country	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
New Zealand	NZSE50	2958.573	5.95	0.2%	24.57m
Japan	Nikkei 225	11005.42	-30.41	-0.28%	82654
Korea	KOSPI	930.16	-14.3	-1.51%	391840
Singapore	Straits Times	2146.41	-3.23	-0.15%	0
Hong Kong	Hang Seng	13830.38	-29.2	-0.21%	84.03m
Malaysia	KLSE Comp	872.37	-0.06	-0.01%	0