Ruddy hell! Thu Jun 24

Australia's PM, Kevin Rudd, has stood down after his popularity had plummeted over the last few months, not helped at all by the proposed resources super tax. His (former) deputy, Julia Gillard, is the new leader and although she is a much more down to earth character, she is also part of the inner circle which has been controlling policy so it's quite a gamble that the electorate was tired of Rudd for personal reasons only.
I'm tired for personal World Cup reasons as our brave Socceroos went down fighting with a victory not quite enough to see them through to the knockout stages.
There was a "thanks goodness for that" rally early on, despite a flat night, but at 12.42 pm the Xjo index is up just 12 points. The big gainers have been the miners, particularly the iron ore stocks, although the picture is muddied with end of year movements and bounces from oversold lows in stocks like Cgf and Tse.
I got out of my Cgf at 347, which was roughly a reversal of yesterdays 5% fall. I even managed to buy and sell a few extra on the way.
I've put on a new position, a short in Bluescope Steel, which has had a much less pronounced retracement over the last month, more typical of a correction before a resumption of a downtrend. I'm short at 228 with a stop around 242.

4.11 The Gillard surge faded and the Xjo finished down 6 points. Macquarie was sold down nearly 5% after announcing a cautious outlook. The double dip recession - globally at least - is still a strong possibility. I'm happy to have a pretty neutral book.