Australian shares again ignored positive overseas leads, falling for a second day as news of a slump in business investment pushed the dollar below 77 US cents.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 23 points or 0.4% weaker at 5702, with resource stocks leading the way south. The gold sector dived 3.9%, metals & mining 1.4%, materials 1.1% and energy 0.5%. Health +0.3% was the only sector to rise.
Analysts lowered their GDP expectations after a report this morning showed business investment slumped 4.4% last quarter, almost twice the 2.4% decline anticipated by economists. The report also included much weaker spending plans than last year. The dollar dived almost half a cent, lately buying 76.83 US cents.
"Weak numbers across the board," JPMorgan economist Tom Kennedy told Fairfax. "It looks like capex is going to be a bit more of a drag on GDP than we had pencilled in. We had [growth of] 0.5% and we are in the process of adjusting it. I would say there is some downside risk... We see the RBA on hold until mid-next year and then a rate hike."
China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.09% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.21%. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.66%. Dow futures were recently off two points or less than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures lifted 28 cents this morning to US$57.81 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.90 firmer at US$1,187.50 an ounce.
It's not often I get grumpy about this thread, but I'm inclined to think that with a few honourable exceptions this morning's effort was one of the rampiest, most repetitive and least interesting in months. The proportion of clutter to useful info was way too high. I'm just another mug punter whose opinion doesn't matter any more than anyone else's here, but we've done better than this in the past. What drives posters to repeat the same information about the same share ad infinitum? What do they hope to achieve? By the time I've read the same stock code four times I'm already developing resistance to it. Running commentaries on price movements don't inspire FOMO, they inspire plenty of other acronyms that HC guidelines prevent me from using. Sure, the market has been slow this week and there are fewer opportunities to discuss, but if there's nothing new to be said, let's not say it. If the threads have any value, it's as a source of fresh information/trading ideas, not a reminder that there were great opportunities two hours/days/weeks ago. The forum has been improving - last weekend's after-market thread was a cracker - so please let's not let it slide. Rant over. Trading: despite being in a clear downtrend (a no-no for overnight holds) 1PG has been offering regular intraday 'oversold' bounce opportunities. Took six pips out of it this morning. Only other buys were BSL and CSR, which have gone nowhere as yet.
