Friday Flashback

THE WEEKLY WRAP: Somebody needs to tell the Americans holidays are a time for relaxation.

As they settled in to give thanks, the land of the free began a frenzied sell-off of energy shares after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to do nothing to ease the current glut of oil on the world market.

Brent crude oil prices slumped to a five-year low of US$60 a barrel to pull focus from iron ore, which didn’t actually have a bad day by bouncing up to US$71.30.

While the big players in the oil and iron ore sectors – you know who they are – continue their respective march to world domination other stocks also took a bath on Monday as Chinese manufacturing data took its toll on non-iron-or-oil-related commodities.

Copper hit a four and a half year low to US$6235 per tonne to follow respective losses recorded by aluminium, zinc, and nickel the previous Friday of 2 per cent, 1.8 per cent, and 0.5 per cent.

The all-Ordinaries lived up to its moniker to drop a hefty 107 points for the day.

Our national carrier QANTAS (ASX: QAN) steered clear of the damage flying over the two dollar mark to close at $2.01.

Obviously not enough people paid attention to our tweeting regarding the lack of entertainment on the flight from Perth to Brisbane.

It’s a first world problem I know but it wasn’t me who set the lofty standards the airline didn’t meet on this occasion.

They have assured us the problem is being dealt with as they rush to refurbish planes for the route.

However, when your timings off, its off and using Frequent Flyer points to upgrade to Business Class for the return leg sounded good until meal time when it became patently obvious it was Neil Perry’s day off from the kitchen.

Of course, as we have come to learn in the current market environment, a cup of tea and good lie down work wonders and on Tuesday the market rallied.

Brent crude jumped back over the US$70 puddle to US$72.80 with Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL) enjoying the moment to gain 66c to close the day at $34.86.

The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 closed higher on Wednesday, as a rebound in US oil prices led to gains in energy shares.

By Yesterday almost all had been forgiven and the goldfish investor mentality had returned with the Aussie market appreciating a rise in US equities on the back of cheerful economic news in the form of a US Federal Reserve report, which showed the largest democratic economy continued to grow in October and November giving rise to pre-Christmas optimism.

Stronger than expected trade and retail spending figures brought a smile to Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey’s dial as they helped the Australian dollar regain some of the ground lost earlier in the week.

The Aussie dollar hit a four year low after Wednesday’s economic growth data, which sparked talk of a possible rate cut by the Reserve Bank.

The currency got back on track yesterday from an 0.4 per cent rise in retail spending in October, and a narrowing of Australia’s trade deficit to $1.3 billion.