Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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US non-farm payroll data is the key factor for markets globally with muted market action over the last 48 hours, with the S&P 500 index touching on another record high but unable to follow through with any conviction.

What are traders talking about today?

•    S&P/ASX200 gained 12.9 points or +0.24% on volume of $2.9 billion, closing at 5422.8.
•    Gold was unable to follow through from the recent bounce back higher, pulling back 0.3 per cent but appears to be forming somewhat of a base. Movements off the back of non-farm payroll data will be important to watch going forward.
•    Brent Crude Oil managed a healthy 1.4 per cent bounce upwards on Thursday night trading, climbing back above $106 and clutching on to the current low support levels.
•    Copper has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue over the last few trading sessions, with many hoping for a push higher, but it has been unable to, instead bouncing sideways, unable to gain ground.
•    Adding more fuel to the HFT trading fire, BATS has issued a correction to the tense discussion O’Brien had with IEX exchange owner Katsuyama, suggesting that they do price their orders off a slower feed, thereby allowing possible front running of orders. The HFT debate appears to be here for the long haul.

Economic news

•    US non-farm payroll data is due out at 11:30pm Sydney time Friday with analysts suggesting a figure of 199,000 jobs being added, hopefully spiking even more if the cold weather snap affect has worn off.
•    Alcohol consumption in Australia has just hit a record 17 year low with most Aussie’s content to skip the occasional beer, with beer consumption suggesting a 67 year low.

Australian sector watch

Looking over the charts

•    Today was almost an identical ‘nothing’ day as witnessed yesterday with very narrow trading ranges and hardly any volatility.
•    At least bullish traders will find solace in the face that the Aussie 200 closed at the higher end of the daily range, closing right on the high for the day and the highest close since the 7th of March.
•    Momentum continues to favour the positive side despite the market currently showing overbought. The danger with the overbought signal is that it is still well within our market hitting lower potential highs over the next few trading days.
•    The last few days of trading have likely be muted due to traders waiting for non-farm payroll data to come out of the US tonight at 11:30pm.

ASX top 200 stock analysis

25% of stocks are showing oversold levels, 20% are showing overbought levels and 56% 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:
•    SKE    SKILLED GROUP +5.70%
•    BRU    BURU ENERGY +5.28%
•    BKN    BRADKEN +3.97%
•    FXL    FLEXIGROUP +3.78%
•    MYR    MYER HOLDINGS +3.56%
Top 5 Losers:
•    OFX    OZFOREX GROUP -3.76%
•    MSB    MESOBLAST -3.42%
•    TME    TRADE ME GROUP -3.40%
•    GEM    G8 EDUCATION -3.32%
•    SWM    SEVEN WEST MEDIA -2.79%