daytrading may 1 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares have fallen for only the second time in eight sessions following a triple whammy of economic disappointments from China and home.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 14 points or 0.3% weaker at 5177 as institutional traders locked in profits from yesterday's end-of-month "window dressing" rally. Telecoms +0.3% was the only sectors to rise on a morning when metals & mining dropped 1.5%, industrials 0.3% and financials traded unchanged.

The retreat came as manufacturing reports from Australia and China missed targets and Australian house prices dipped last month. The Chinese manufacturing PMI dropped to 50.6 last month from 50.9 in March, just below expectations. The reading is the latest in a run of weak economic signals that saw the Shanghai Composite share index hit a four-month low before closing for this week's three-day public holiday. Meanwhile Australia's manufacturing sector hit its weakest level since 2009. The AIG Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index for March slumped 7.7 points to 36.7. A separate report showed house prices esed 0.5% last month, paring a 2.8% rise over the first quarter of the year.

"There is little doubt that risks to global economic growth for 2013 are tilted to the downside," Matthew Sherwood, head of investment market research at Perpetual, told Bloomberg. "Earnings growth after several years of very subdued performance still seems a bit of a stretch."

Most Asian markets were closed for public holidays. Japan's Nikkei reversed 0.23%. Dow futures were recently down four points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures eased another seven cents this morning to US$93.01 a barrel. Spot gold was 50 cents softer at US$1,474.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0373.


Not a bad performance considering the economic data and the usual unwinding of institutional window dressing. The odds on more rate cuts have probably improved following that lot. Well done PUNsters. I looked at it in the teens and thought, "Nah. Not enough volume." Ah well. Low-key morning otherwise. Spend it sowing buy orders that sit as yet unharvested.