Thanks Endless and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
The share market surrendered almost a week of gains this morning as a new wave of global selling swept through Asia from the US.
The ASX 200 slumped 102 points or 1.7% to 5840 mid-session, following a night of heavy losses on Wall Street. Local tech stocks paced a 2.78% plunge on the Nasdaq overnight with a fall of 2.6%. Other prominent victims included health -2.2%, financials -2.2% and materials -2%. The defensive utilities sector was alone in resisting the trend, rising 0.4%.
"US equities plummeted overnight on a general risk-off tone," CMC Market's strategist Michael McCarthy told Fairfax. "One trigger was the revaluation of tech shares, as Apple lead the fall. Analysts generally interpret the cancellation of additional production of iPhones as a sign of softer demand, leading to a growing concern that similar situations may appear for other US tech giants. At the same time, volatility is higher."
Asian markets followed Wall Street sharply lower. China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.71%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.94% andJapan's Nikkei 3.1%. S&P 500 futures were recently off two points or 0.07%.
Crude oil futures remained anchored below US$60 a barrel, lately down 81 cents or 1.35% at US$59.12 a barrel. Gold futures edged up $1 or 0.08%to US$1,204.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.81 US cents.
Trading: expected to be busy today with the scale of the falls, but the selling was too measured to offer many bounces. Good to see there were still spec risers in the likes of BIT, MCT and OEX. I eventually became bored enough to dip a toe in CAG, a riddle of a share wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. The only thing I know for sure about it is it knows its way to the liftshaft.
