Christmas Trading
December 22nd, 2008 by Antony Ganzitti
Closing Data
| current | change | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Jones | 8579.11 | -25.88 | -0.3% |
| NASDAQ | 1564.32 | 11.95 | 0.8% |
| S P 500 | 887.88 | 2.6 | 0.3% |
| FTSE 100 | 4286.93 | -43.73 | -1.0% |
| Nikkei 225 | 8588.52 | -78.71 | -0.9% |
| SPI Futures | 3544 | -28 | -0.8% |
| All Ords | 3,547.00 | 25.5 | 0.7% |
| Oil | 33.17 | -3.59 | -9.8% |
| Gold | 837.4 | -23.2 | -2.7% |
| Silver | 10.85 | -0.27 | -2.4% |
| Aluminium | 1438.5 | 7.5 | 0.5% |
| Copper | 2826 | -59.5 | -2.1% |
| Lead | 882 | -63.5 | -6.7% |
| Nickel | 9655 | 195 | 2.1% |
| Tin | 10600 | -400 | -3.6% |
| Zinc | 1082 | 15 | 1.4% |
Christmas Trading
Friday saw an interesting finish to the afternoon’s proceedings on the local bourse. The ASX200/XJO index closed up 34 points at 3615, well off an early morning low of 3509. Much of the reason for the strength in the index and also the rise in volumes was due to S&P quarterly index reweightings, which saw fund managers juggle and switch various positions. I would also like to contribute some of the move to what is an oversold market, one in which bargain hunters are finally prepared to step in and support the price of quality issues.
With Christmas and the New Year just around the corner we can expect retail and institutional involvement to dry up considerably and volumes to be well down over the coming weeks. This is the typical expectation. However there have been times in the past where such periods have actually provided large swings in volatility, making it easy for fund managers to move around certain stocks on low volume, as they try to shore up their end of year or end of quarter performance figures.
Friday in the US was mixed, with very little movement in all three major indices. Banks and commodity issues fell when initial enthusiasm for the government’s bailout of carmakers gave way to betting against an immediate economic recovery. General Motors surged 23%; Ford added 3.9% after the US government promised auto makers $17.4 billion in emergency loans from TARP. These loans are to be distributed in two stages and they hinge on the auto makers ability to prove they can become viable by March 31. If they fail, Treasury will demand the money back.
More local news........ CBA has stated that the reason behind its recent increase in impairment expenses is due to bad loans to retail customers. Although the bank is exposed to the likes of Allco Finance, Centro Properties and ABC Learning, last week’s increase was driven by arrears in its retail bank. Telstra (TLS) says that pursuing legal action against the Rudd Government for kicking it out of the $15 billion national broadband network tender is not a priority, though the company hasn’t ruled it out.
Please note market trading hours over the next two weeks:
Wednesday 24th December – trading ceases at 14:10 Sydney time
Thursday 25th December – closed
Friday 26th December – closed
Wednesday 31st December – trading ceases at 14:10 Sydney time
Thursday 1st January – closed
Joke of the Day
"What is the Capital of Iceland?" About $3.50
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