Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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An unemployment shocker as we hit 6% unemployment, signalling the worst level in a decade, which brought the Aussie Dollar down with it, whilst the S&P/ASX200 managed a flat session.

What are traders talking about today?

•    S&P/ASX200 lost 2 points or -0.04% on volume of $3.9 billion, closing at 5308.1.
•    The Aussie Dollar fell over 100 pips off the back of our unemployment shocker, breaking below the 90 cent handle after briefly giving bulls a glimmer of hope above that level.
•    Gold had quite a volatile session overnight, giving back recent gains only to charge forward into the close of the session and stay about the $1,285 mark.
•    Copper did everything it could be break a short term resistance level but appears to be giving back those gains and dropping back below that level.
•    The Nikkei has been unable to break above the 14922 level and has fallen more than 400 points in two days.
Economic news
•    Australian official Unemployment figures were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today, rising 0.1% to 6%, signalling the worst level in 10 years with 3700 jobs disappearing.
•    Westpac delivered their unemployment expectations index today, showing an improvement of 2.3% for February.

Looking over the charts

•    The S&P/ASX200 vainly attempted a 6th straight up day but was unable to hold on to early gains, as it slid back to breakeven and then gyrated in a 15 point range, slightly above and slightly below breakeven.
•    Technically we saw a tweezer top on the SPI futures pricing and an evening star formation on the cash price, indicating indecision in the market, bordering on slightly bearish.
•    What is interesting is the market hit a high level three times between 5335 and 5339 and was unable to break through that level today, so we could see some consolidation or weakness feature over the next couple of days.
•    Another factor to keep in mind is that markets move in price and time and after we see a bias on one side we normally have the other catch up. So that means we just had a hard and fast run up, which is price, and the likely scenario going forward is time, which means a potential consolidation with little movement going forward.

ASX top 200 stock analysis

4% of stocks are showing oversold levels, 57% are showing overbought levels and 62% of stocks are currently above their long term moving average as of close of trading today. View the image below to better understand overbought and oversold levels.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Top 5 gainers:
•    QAN    QANTAS AIRWAYS +6.28%
•    MMS    MCMILLAN SHAKESPEARE +4.71%
•    WSA    WESTERN AREAS +4.67%
•    PNA    PANAUST +3.65%
•    SXY    SENEX ENERGY +3.57%
Top 5 Losers:
•    GFF    GOODMAN FIELDER -7.14%
•    PRY    PRIMARY HEALTH CARE -5.41%
•    WHC    WHITEHAVEN COAL -3.89%
•    SKE    SKILLED GROUP -3.88%
•    DLX    DULUXGROUP -3.68%