Interest rate sensitive

A 25 basis point rate cut is baked in for tomorrow but there are a couple of interest rate sensitive stocks which are charting promisingly despite the consensus.

One of them is retailer DJS. The stock has been falling for ever but had a decent pop in April and has spent a week or so consolidating without a meaningful pullback. Long at 250 with a stop at 242.

QAN fell out of favour in early April but momentum has stopped and price could be reversing after a minor new low on Friday. Long at 163.5 with a stop at 159.

I sold out of ALL and UGL for square as there was no follow through this morning. I took profits in PRU too early as I was concerned about a double top; it's up 9. But I've gone long another gold stock, Resolute, at 166.5. It's a similar chart to QAN but coming off a higher low after a choppy pullback of the first bounce. My stop is at 159, below Thursday's low.

AGO is at risk of misreading investor attitudes to the iron ore cycle. The management may well be correct about ongoing demand but the market is cautious about the sector and talk of building a railway is not helping. Short at 289 with a trailing stop; I've already covered a couple at 283.

WPL has reminded me why I shouldn't be punting naked long premium. The stock has been strong today and negated the possibility of downside acceleration. I could see a breakout on the cards and sold out the May 3374 puts at 32 (v 76 average) and bought some stock at 3470 for a quick day trade. I'm almost out at about 3495 average which has marginally softened the blow. The short term picture looks pretty good now but the stock price is too high dollar for me to want to hold an overnight position.

The market is making up for weakness on Thursday and Friday although a tilt at 4400 has failed so far and the action is not super strong. Up 29 at 4391 at 2.24 pm.

Of my other short positions, ASL and NWH have pushed higher but I'd already covered half of these and I'm sitting on the balance while TOL is down 2% and OST is flat.

4.39 That's the end of the month. I thought the market might sneak up to 4400 on renewed strength this afternoon but it fell just short, finishing up 35 at 4397. My new longs were mixed but on average were about breakeven. AGO did well, closing near the low at 280 and I bought back a third of the TOL short at 583.

Towards the close of trading, I bought MSB at 747. It's my third attempt at buying this – the other two were minor gains – and I'm hoping that a pennant shaped correction is complete. Long on the reversal with a trailing stop and the potential of a move to 810 or higher. The closing price was somewhat misleading as the stock jumped on light volume.