Australian shares marked time as a public holiday in the US tonight pointed to a downbeat close to the trading week.
The ASX 200 traded in a tight 15-point range on below-average volume before reaching the halfway mark two points or less than 0.1% weaker at 5985. Another strong session for resource stocks saw the metals & mining sector put on 1.1%, materials 0.8%, gold 1% and energy 0.5%. But declines in utilities -0.7%, consumer discretionary -0.6% and financials -0.4% threatened to bring the index's first loss in three sessions.
Overnight, US stocks closed mixed as traders prepared for tonight's Thanksgiving market closure and tomorrow night's shortened session. Many traders and portfolio managers were expected to head home for a long weekend. Japanese markets were also closed today for a holiday, further impacting trade volumes across Asia.
China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.36% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.14%. S&P 500 futures were recently down a point or 0.04%.
Crude oil futures retreated seven cents or 0.12% this morning to US$57.95 a barrel. Gold futures shed $2.40 or 0.19% to US$1,294.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.11 US cents.
A low-key session. No sign yet that money managers will take advantage of the low volumes to push the XJO back above 6000. Unfortunately, tonight's US holiday likely means more of the same tomorrow. Boo. Trading: caught part of the bounce in VRX and felt pretty good until it kept going and going and going. SCU also gave a profit. KAI proving more stubborn.
