Shares hovered near a decade-high after a lacklustre night on Wall Street offered little momentum for a convincing move higher.
The ASX 200 drifted three points or less than 0.1% to 6294 after yesterday closing just short of the 6300 resistance level at 6298. The index has butted against 6300 for a month without breaking through.This morning declines in energy stocks -1.4%, utilities -1.1%, industrials -0.8% and materials -0.5% outweighed rises in health +0.6%, consumer discretionary +0.5% and financials +0.2%.
Overnight, Wall Street again closed mixed but little changed as the quarterly reporting season neared its end. The Nasdaq scratched out a gain of 0.04%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.14% and the Dow 0.29%. S&P 500 futures were recently off 4.5 points or 0.16%.
Movement on Asian markets was minimal. China's Shanghai Composite ground 0.09% higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.19% and Japan's Nikkei 0.46%.
Crude oil futures advanced two cents or 0.03% this morning to US$66.83 a barrel. Gold futures were flat at US$1,219.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.7 US cents.
A nothing session on Wall Street set us up for a nothing session. If Fridays get any slower I'm going to have to take up golf. And I'm rubbish at golf. Trading: got out of TGN from yesterday with a slim profit to complete a slim week. Sometimes you're in tune with the market, other times it's playing Metallica and you're stuck with a tambourine.
