Australian stocks eased this morning for just the second session in six as the big banks pared recent gains.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 15 points or 0.3% at 4712, with most sectors trading weaker. Among the few to buck the trend were IT +1.2% and utilities at +0.2%.
In local economic news, home loans beat economists' expectations in October, improving for a fourth straight month. The 1.9% seasonally-adjusted rise in the number of loans approved topped predictions for a rise of just 0.3%.
Overseas, the Irish parliament this morning passed the first of several budget votes due this week as a condition of accessing an EU-IMF bailout package. The Dail voted 82 to 77 to raise fuel taxes. More here.
Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.71% as weakness in the yen boosted exporters, Shanghai dropped 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.28%. Dow futures were recently at -11.
Crude oil futures eased 11 cents this morning to $88.13 a barrel. Spot gold was $1 weaker at $1,397.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 98.39 U.S. cents.
A better morning than we might have expected with that overseas lead, but not enough volatility for this trader. Been a slow week. I caught some of the bounce in GRY and added some MAE in the post-sales issue dump. Backed my ideas about retail stocks by buying DJS at the low but there's not enough volume yet to justify more than a day trade.
