A choppy session within a tight trading range by recent standards characterised today’s market. A late morning rally recovered early weakness only to see the weakness return throughout the afternoon and close in negative territory. The XJO ended the day 0.8% lower, closing 35.6 points down and sectors were mixed. Downside momentum has flattened off but nothing much has changed from yesterday – our stance remains that the sidelines are probably the best place to be. Market risk remains very high and volatility by my indicator is at levels not seen since early 2009 and the latter stages of that bear market downtrend. That said, the US market seems more volatile than the Australian market in the last few sessions, still trading in reasonably wide ranges. The Dow Jones closed up 1.9% overnight and at the time of writing the S&P 500 futures are down 3/4 of a percent in night trading.

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