Australia's winning start to the new year came under threat this morning as stocks retreated for the first time in six sessions.
The ASX 200 dropped 26 points or 0.4% to 6110 by the halfway mark as regional markets struggled for direction. Slim gains in IT +0.4% and health +0.2% were insufficient to offset declines in gold stocks -1.9%, energy -1.3%, industrials -1.1% and materials -0.6%.
While the global rally in risk assets continued in Europe and the US overnight, Asian equity markets showed signs of fatigue after bond veteran Bill Gross warned of an impending bear market in bonds. Read more here. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.06%, Japan's Nikkei lost 0.29% and China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.22%. Dow futures were recently down 13 points or 0.05%.
December Chinese inflation figures came in broadly in line with expectations. Consumer inflation edged up to 1.8% from a rate of 1.7% in November. The producer price index dropped from 5.8% to 4.9%, just ahead of expectations.
Crude oil futures pushed higher, lately up 52 cents or 0.83% this morning to US$63.48 a barrel. Gold futures shed $2.20 or 0.17% to US$1,311.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 78.18 US cents.
Feels like we're due a pullback or at the very least a pause after a nice little post-Christmas run. The specs are still charging and generally trail broader market trends by a few sessions, so we're unlikely to see genuine weakness at that end unless today's mild retreat turns into something deeper. The Chinese inflation report at 12.30 seemed to have little impact on the XJO. Trading: profits taken in GTG and AMI, part-profit in 5GN.
