Afternoon trading April 30

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A second day of selling dragged the share market further below last week's decade high as Chinese factory data disappointed and traders locked in profits on the last session of the month.

The ASX 200 remained firmly on track for a fourth straight winning month despite a decline today of 38 points or 0.6 per cent to 6321. The index peaked at a post-GFC high of 6391 last week, but hit reverse yesterday ahead of a number of potential market-moving events this week, including today's Chinese manufacturing update, the resumption of trade talks between China and the US, earning reports from two of the big four banks here and a much-anticipated Federal Reserve meeting in the US.

The market was well in the red before this morning's double dose of Chinese factory data and found little in the numbers to improve the mood. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index came in 50.1 - just above the 50-point level that separates expansion from contraction, but significantly below the 50.5 reading anticipated by economists. A private measure released 45 minutes later also missed expectations, coming in at 50.2, down from 50.8 last month.

The selling was broad, with utilities falling hardest with a decline of 1.4 per cent and consumer staples faring best at break-even. Resource stocks resumed a three-week sell-off following a brief pause yesterday. BHP slid 1.6 per cent to a new low for the month. Rio Tinto shed 2.8 per cent.

Traders also appeared reluctant to hang around in the banks ahead of first-half earnings reports this week from ANZ, NAB and Macquarie Group. ANZ and NAB both eased 0.4 per cent, CBA 0.7 per cent and Westpac 0.2 per cent. Macquarie bucked the trend with a rise of 0.3 per cent.

Domain Group Holdings was the worst performer on the index, falling 6.5 per cent after revealing a 6 per cent decline in revenue last quarter as real estate sales listings dropped 13 per cent. That dragged rival REA Group down 1.2 per cent.

Tech sector leader Wisetech slid 2.3 per cent after announcing it had acquired Swedish messaging integration solutions provider Xware. Nine Network edged up 0.9 per cent after announcing it had sold a group of former Fairfax regional newspapers including the Canberra Times for $115 million.

Today's declines followed a mixed morning in Asia. China's Shanghai Composite bounced 0.4 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave up 0.6 percent. The Nikkei in Japan remained closed for a public holiday.

Wall Street closed last night at a record. The S&P 500 edged up 0.1 per cent to an all-time high on the back of solid company earnings. However, those Chinese figures dampened the mood. S&P 500 futures were recently down 3.5 points or 0.1 per cent.

Gold picked up a little defensive buying this morning, US futures rising $2.40 or 0.2 per cent to $US1,283.90 an ounce. Texas crude oil futures retreated seven cents or 0.1 per cent to $US63.43 a barrel. On currency markets, the dollar was buying 70.46 US cents.

A busy 24 hours ahead, with jobs data due in Europe tonight, consumer confidence figures in the US and here tomorrow first-half earnings from ANZ.

Trading: this quarterly reporting season hasn't half knocked the stuffing out of the specs. Ouch. How dare those quarterlies barge in here, throwing their numbers around, spoiling a perfectly good party. The nerve of it. Get back to the long-term investing forum, where you belong.
I like a bit of knife catching but there were plenty of opportunities to lose fingers this morning. Caught NET, LVT, FTC and PLL. Out of two of them, but still not sure this was a good idea.