Hi toms17 I'm not expecting a trading halt request before the DD...

Hi toms17

I'm not expecting a trading halt request before the DD announcement but we can probably expect see some havoc across the ASX on Monday... while others may also consider this an opportunity.

As for the macroeconomic events that fueled last weeks sell-off, Saudia Arabia controls the price of oil, so until the threat of competition coming from the US or other OPEC nations subside, the Saudis are likely to continue delivering a basic economics lesson on supply and demand.

In regards to the illusion of the almighty Chinese stock market crash, the Shanghai Composite Index is still +56.54% higher than it was 12 months ago. Compare this to the performance of the ASX200 -7.63%, Nasdaq +3.69%, or Dow Jones -3.18%, over the same period and one quickly realizes the scaremongers must be referring to the two exchanges predominantly made up of Chinese state owned enterprises trading @ 80 to 85 x earnings???

Pullbacks (and corrections) are always healthy for the markets regardless of what excuses get used to drive them. What bothers me more is that every time the market stutters we have a thousand financial experts around the world calling the next GFC, and none of them are held accountable for the 99% of calls they get wrong

I'm certainly no expert on this topic myself Tom but what I have found helpful during periods of uncertainty in the market when almost every expert analyst and his donkey seem to be spreading their messages of doom and gloom, is to either print out the article or make a note of the analysts name and his/her prediction, and after the storm has settled make a note of those who you consider to be the most honest and/or reliable for next time a similar situation arises, and black mark or eliminate the names of those who you consider to be repeatedly getting it wrong.

As an example with financial and US stock market analysis, I find Michael Santoli from Yahoo Finance to be one of the more reliable, honest, and open minded commentators during times of market volatility.