Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: Australian...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares retreated this morning after the resignation of a key White House economic advisor sent US equity futures into a tailspin.

The ASX 200 sagged 40 points or 0.7% to 5922, erasing most of yesterday's gains and positioning the index for its fifth loss in six sessions. The fall came after Gary Cohn announced his resignation as the White House chief economic advisor in what some analysts suggested was a protest against administration plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium. Cohn was widely seen as a steadying influence on an increasingly unpredictable administration.

“Policy uncertainty has underpinned a lot of the market’s recent volatility,” Stephen Wood, chief market strategist for North America at Russell Investments in the US, told Bloomberg. “This speaks to the instability. [Gary Cohn is] an advocate for free trade policy so there would be expectation that protectionist voices would be more representative in the administration.”

The announcement came after the close of regular trade on Wall Street this morning and pushed US equity futures deep into the red. S&P 500 futures were recently down 26.5 points or 0.97%. Dow futures shed 293 points or 1.18%.

The US news overshadowed the release of mildly disappointing domestic GDP data. The economy expanded by 0.4% last quarter and by 2.4% over 12 months, according to the ABS. Economists had anticipated growth rates of 0.5% for the quarter and 2.5% for the year.

Asian markets appeared to take the US development in their stride. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.17%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.14% and Japan's Nikkei 0.04%.

Crude oil futures were caught up in the flight from risk assets. US crude futures dropped 43 cents or 0.69% this morning to US$62.17 a barrel. Gold futures edged up $1.20 or 0.1% to US$1,336.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.97 US cents.



If Trump keeps churning and burning through staff at this rate, there won't be many Americans left who haven't done a stint at the White House. Wall Street fears all the 'safe hands' are slowly abandoning the administration, leaving the alt-right ideologues with a free hand to experiment with the global economy. Australia will be an unwilling part of this. Things have not got too ugly yet, but the potential for tit for tat measures appears strong. Trading: low-key morning. Got a wage from EPM yesterday. Second dabble today.