Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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Fresh six year highs on the Aussie 200 Index plus the Aussie Dollar has broken through 90 cents convincingly, providing a perfect start to the weekend, but non-farm payroll data is looming for a Saturday 12:30am (Sydney time) release, so be sure to watch out for volatility and potential further breakthroughs.

What are traders talking about today?   

•    S&P/ASX200 gained 16.4 point or +0.30% on volume of $3.5 billion, closing at 5462.3.
•    Spot Gold traded straight back up to previous resistance at $1,350.58 in overnight trading and will look to break through on further USD weakness.
•    Iron Ore managed a small upswing, rising 20 US cents to $116.90 per tonne, providing a possible bounce for the likes of Fortescue Metals (FMG:ASX) and Rio Tinto (RIO:ASX)
•    The Aussie Dollar managed to not only break through resistance at.9050 but managed an intraday high of 91 cents.
•    Glenn Stevens gave his speech before the House Budget Committee on Friday at 9:30am suggesting it was time for home owners to be wary of taking on too much debt going forward. He also speculated for the unemployment rate to fall.
Economic news
•    US State unemployment benefits fell by 26,000 to 323,000, which is the lowest level since November.
•    The Ai Group Performance of Construction Index numbers came out showing a decline of 4 points to 44.2 points.
•    The big figure out tonight is the US non-farm payroll data with forecasts suggesting an improvement of 151,000 jobs. With recent jobs data a little underwhelming, Saturday morning's data will be very closely watched.

Australian sector watch

Looking over the charts

•    Another positive day for the Aussie 200 index threatening the February high of 5461 and closing in the top third of today’s candle, posting the highest close on the Aussie 200 cash index since June 10, 2008.
•    At this point it would be fair to say we are looking for a strong follow through but it is somewhat hard to forecast with the US non-farm payroll data looming. Having said that, the momentum is well and truly favouring the bulls.
•    In the midst of this uptrend, there is a bearish divergence forming that may be missed by a number of traders. It would be fair to say that the highs haven’t actually gotten higher, so we will have to wait and see if this bearish divergence unfolds.

ASX top 200 stock analysis

16% of stocks are showing oversold levels, 38% are showing overbought levels and 69% 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:
•    CRZ    CARSALES.COM +7.80%
•    LEI    LEIGHTON HOLDINGS +7.69%
•    SVW    SEVEN GROUP HOLDINGS +6.25%
•    PDN    PALADIN ENERGY +6.14%
•    HVN    HARVEY NORMAN HOLDINGS +5.41%
Top 5 Losers:
•    EWC    ENERGY WORLD CORPORATION -7.14%
•    MML    MEDUSA MINING -4.86%
•    SWM    SEVEN WEST MEDIA -4.46%
•    ARI    ARRIUM -4.44%
•    SLR    SILVER LAKE RESOURCES -3.70%