Afternoon trading May 13

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Aussie shares retreated at the start of a week likely to be dominated by inflationary concerns as the Federal Government hands down its budget and Wall Street awaits April consumer price data.

The ASX 200 eased 17 points or 0.22% by mid-session. Gains in utilities, gold miners and consumer stocks helped offset down-pressure from energy producers, banks and property stocks. ANZ and Macquarie Group were the biggest drags as they traded ex-dividend.

A data-heavy week brings a federal budget and US wholesale inflation data tomorrow night, followed by US consumer inflation data on Wednesday and domestic job figures on Thursday. Some economists fear cost-of-living spending measures in tomorrow night's budget could delay interest rate cuts.

US stocks finished mixed but mostly higher on Friday. The Dow extended its longest win run since December with a rise of 0.32%. The S&P 500 edged up 0.16%, while the Nasdaq dipped 0.03%.


Personal trading: Half a pip from VNL on retrace. Shaken out of HYT for brokerage when there was a profit on offer. Grrr...