Thanks Oscar and morning crew.Half-time round-up:A cold trade...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A cold trade wind from the north blew the share market to a two-week low on the first session of winter.

Aussie shares held their ground on Friday after Donald Trump announced sweeping trade sanctions against Mexico, but there was no ignoring the selling that followed that night on U.S. and European markets. The S&P 500 in the U.S. tumbled 1.3 per cent and the major indices in Europe each lost at least 0.7 per cent. The ASX 200 played catch-up this morning, falling 55 points or 0.9 per cent to 6342.

A broad sell-off saw all ten industry sectors lose ground, with defensive utilities faring best with a decline of 0.2 per cent, and the energy sector suffering the biggest hit, losing 1.4 per cent after oil hit its lowest level since February.

Texas crude dived 5.5 per cent or $3.09 on Friday to $US53.50 a barrel as the latest round of tariffs added to concerns about waning global demand. This morning brought no hint of a bounce, with U.S. oil futures lately down another 55 cents or 1 per cent at $US52.94. Australian oil companies followed the crude price back to three-and-a-half-month lows. Beach Energy fell 2.9 per cent, Santos 2 per cent. Oil Search dropped 1.4 per cent to pre-Christmas levels. Woodside dropped 2.1 per cent but held above last month's nadir.

The prospect of a rate cut tomorrow was not enough to keep the big banks above water. CBA slipped 0.4 per cent, ANZ 1 per cent, NAB 0.3 per cent and Westpac 1 per cent.

Some of the shine has been coming off the recent run-up in the price of iron ore amid speculation the price may have peaked last week. Friday saw benchmark 62% iron ore fines decline 2.2 per cent to $101.60 a tonne, extending the retreat from last week's five-year high to 6.5 per cent. This morning BHP dropped 1.9 per cent, Rio Tinto 2.2 per cent and Fortescue 2.7 per cent.

Fleet manager Eclipx Group provided some light amidst the gloom, rising 28.6 per cent on the back of a well-received first-half report. Gold stocks also fared well as traders sought havens. Saracen Mineral rose 7.2 per cent, Regis Resources 7.1 per cent and Resolute Mining 3.6 per cent.

At the speculative end of the market, lithium miners are back in vogue. Lake Resources, which announced promising results from its Argentinian project on Friday, rallied another 31.3 per cent this morning. And Anson Resources jumped 2.3 cents or 49 per cent to 7.3 cents after announcing it had produced battery-quality lithium carbonate at its U.S. brine project.

The morning's domestic economic news appeared to firm up the case for rate cut when the Reserve Bank meets tomorrow. Job advertising contracted 8.4 per cent last month - the heaviest setback since the GFC, according to ANZ data. Company operating profits also fell short of expectations, growing at an anemic 1.7 per cent over the first three months of the year. Economists had anticipated growth of 2.9 per cent.

Gloomy U.S. index futures helped drag down Asian markets despite Chinese factory data beating expectations. China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both eased 0.4 percent. Japan's Nikkei shed 1.2 per cent. S&P 500 futures in the U.S. were recently off 15 points or 0.5 per cent.

Turning to commodity markets, the rally in gold continued. U.S. gold futures advanced $5.80 or 0.4 per cent to $US1,316.90 an ounce.

On currency markets, the dollar was buying 69.5 US cents.

Trading: set a heck of a lot of buy orders for minimal return. Got a couple of pips out of PEK.