Half-time round-up:
The share market tilted lower today as reports of tensions in US-China trade talks weighed on US equity futures.
The ASX 200 has been stuck in a sideways trend this week, but fell away this morning to a loss of 22 points or 0.4 per cent at 6163.
A rebound in global equity markets since the start of the year has stalled over the last week as traders await news from the US's trade talks with China. Overnight, a rally in the US petered out following reports China is pushing back against US demands. Bloomberg said negotiators had hit stumbling blocks on a number of issues, including patents, data protection and tensions with existing Chinese laws. Read more here. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been up almost 200 points, closed 27 points or 0.1 per cent weaker. The broader S&P 500 finished flat.
That gloomy end to the US session extending into futures trading, where S&P 500 futures were recently down 6.25 points or 0.2 per cent. That added to headwinds for the local market, which has struggled for traction this week and today never got out of second gear. While there were gains for the defensive utilities and health sectors, these were outweighed by retreats in the big miners and several of the banks. BHP eased 1.5 per cent, Rio Tinto 3.2 per cent and CBA 0.5 per cent.
Takeover target Eclipx Group lost more than half its value after a disastrous trading update prompted suitor McMillan Shakespeare to walk away. Shares in Eclipx crashed 53.6 per cent after it tore up its full-year profit expectations and declined to provide market guidance. Shares in McMillan bounced 3.1 per cent after the company said it would abandon its merger bid.
Shares in agricultural chemical company Nufarm plunged 18.7 per cent to a four-year low after the company slashed its earnings outlook and suspended its dividend, blaming the impact of the drought on demand from farmers. Coal miner New Hope continued to suffer after its half-year result missed expectations yesterday, falling another 13.4 per cent today.
Fund manager Platinum Asset hit the skids after founder Kerr Nelson announced that he and his wife were offloading 30 million shares to free up cash for philanthropic endeavours and the arts. Share traders tend to be cynical and assume the worst, so they sold the company down 9.6 per cent.
Corporate Travel Management was one of the bright lights on the index, rising 5.4 per cent after releasing a well-received investor presentation.
Asian markets paced declines in US futures. China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.5 per cent and Japan's Nikkei 0.3 per cent.
Crude oil futures dropped 19 cents or 0.3 per cent this morning to $US58.84 a barrel. Gold futures dipped $2.50 or 0.2 per cent to $US1,304 an ounce. The dollar was buying 70.67 US cents.
This week's big-ticket economic event comes tonight in the US when the Federal Reserve releases a policy statement and updates its rates guidance. The big event of the week here comes tomorrow with the release of February jobs figures.
Trading: tricky morning, with nothing going particularly well. Nailed the entry in NHC but let the shares go far too soon. Into EUR and ECX too early. Small dabble in FNP near support.
