The Australian share market marked time this morning ahead of Chinese trade data later today.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was two points or less than 0.1% stronger at 4710 as a run of subdued sessions this week threatens the benchmark index's seven-week win streak. The index has fallen for three of the last four sessions amid caution leading into the US quarterly reporting season.
Defensive sectors and financials accounted for most of the strength during a risk-averse morning where resource stocks and industrials lost ground. Consumer discretionary stocks rallied 0.5%, property trusts 0.4% and telecoms 0.2%. Gold stocks declined 1.5%, energy 0.6% and materials 0.6%.
"Overall direction remains limited ahead of a plethora of earnings releases over coming days [in the US] and, more immediately, the European Central Bank and Bank of England meetings [tonight]," strategists at Credit Agricole told MarketWatch.
Japan was the pick of the Asian markets as China's pending trade balance report kept a lid on most markets. Shanghai inched up 0.12%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.1% and Japan's Nikkei 0.58%. Dow futures were recently down eight points or less than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures eased four cents this morning to US$93.12 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.60 weaker at US$1,654.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0503.
Quote of the morning was the poster on one of the threads who claimed today's decline in a major local energy company was caused by "day traders fishing for stop losses". When I looked, the company in question had traded six million shares to a value of over $8 million. Damn, you guys have deep pockets. My pockets are slightly fuller after a morning of modest achievement. Been tracking IRI for three days for a likely bounce level and got in this morning. So far so good. Caught the low in BPT for what would have been a nice return with a full fill. Also took GUF. RXL appears to be the real deal, based on this week's action - gave that one away far too early. Well done if you're on AKM. I stayed away after some fishy action yesterday: a big trader placed 7m+ and 5m sell orders which had the effect of driving the price low enough for someone to scoop up cheap shares. Then today's announcement? Goodness, what a fortunate coincidence.
