The ASX slid towards the lower band of its current trading range as an investigation into CBA and a broker downgrade for Qantas weighed on sentiment.
The ASX 200 declined 44 points or 0.8% to a one-week low at 5700 at the halfway mark as a 6.2% dive in QAN dragged the industrials sector down 1.6% and news of a fresh probe into CBA helped lower the financials sector by 1.1%. Shares in the nation's biggest bank fell to their weakest level since November after APRA announced an inquiry into the running of the bank following money-laundering allegations.
Other pockets of weakness included consumer staples -1%, utilities -0.8% and telecoms -0.7%. The energy sector ticked up 0.3% as Hurricane Harvey disrupted oil production in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Crude oil futures gapped higher on Friday night, but eased 17 cents or 0.36% this morning to US$47.70 a barrel as traders waited for damage assessments. Dow futures declined 23 points or 0.11% on concerns over the impact on listed businesses in the area.
China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.94% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.64%. Japan's Nikkei gave up 0.11%.
Gold futures rose $1.50 or 0.12% to US$1,299.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.41 US cents.
Wall Street is on storm alert: how bad is the hit from Harvey? The mood may improve if the prognosis is mild. Too early yet to say. Trading: locked in a profit from AVQ from last week and rotated into NET and NTL - starting small in both cases.
