Thanks @Quantum Torus@Ravgnome and AM Loungers. This is the one and only DT Pre Open thread for today. Hi to @paddington bear who has taken a month's sabbatical. Missing your wonderful reports and look forward to reading them again soon.
The Australian share market has closed lower again, with energy and materials stocks dragging the ASX back toward last week's six-month low.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended down 61.8 points, or 1.05 per cent, at 5,843.1 points on Tuesday, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 1.02 per cent.
Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston said it appeared Australia had been caught up in the broader volatility of China's efforts to lift its equity market.
"It's been a two-day affair: China has effectively brought their A-game, and has chucked the kitchen sink at getting the equity markets up," Mr Weston said.
"They've caused a two-day rally and, as soon as the Chinese market opened, we've traded lower."
The energy sector was comfortably the worst performing, dropping early and declining further throughout the day to close 3.2 per cent down.
The resources sector dropped away after early gains, with Rio Tinto and BHP closing down 1.1 and 0.8 per cent respectively.
Coronado Global Resources, Australia's biggest coal mining IPO since 2012, closed 10 per cent below its float price of $4.00 on its first day of trade.
The heavyweight financial sector also fell after a choppy overnight session on Wall Street, with ANZ leading the declines among the big four banks with a 1.9 per cent drop to $25.29.
Commonwealth Bank was the best performing of the major lenders, falling 1.1 per cent to $66.61 after announcing the sale of its 80 per cent stake in an Indonesian life insurance business for $426 million.
The healthcare sector is down about 17 per cent since the end of August following a fourth straight session of losses.
Private hospital operator Healthscope leapt nearly 20 per cent to $2.13 after becoming the target of a $4.11 billion takeover bid involving AustralianSuper for the second time in six months, but sector giant CSL slipped another 1.9 per cent to $3.58.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar slipped to 70.65 US cents from 71.09 on Monday, as the previous day's optimism over Chinese policy stimulus faded.
ON THE ASX:
* The S&P/ASX200 closed down 61.8 points, or 1.05 per cent, at 5,843.1 points
* The All Ordinaries closed down 61.3 points, or 1.02 per cent, at 5,944.9 points
* At 1630 AEDT, the SPI200 futures index was down 76 points, or 1.3 per cent, at 5,815 points.
CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEDT:
One Australian dollar buys:
* 70.65 US cents, from 71.09 US cents on Monday
* 79.52 Japanese yen, from 80.07
* 61.67 euro cents, from 61.75
* 54.50 British pence, from 54.40
* 107.96 NZ cents, from 107.86
GOLD:
The spot price of gold in Sydney at 1630 AEDT was $US1,224.9 per fine ounce, from $US1,228.00 on Monday.
U.S. stocks were easing back Tuesday from a steep, broad sell-off that knocked more than 500 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average earlier in the day.
Even with the late-afternoon rebound, stocks were on track to extend the market's recent string of losses, including a four-day losing streak for the benchmark S&P 500 index. Bond prices rose, sending yields lower, as investors sought out safer investments.
The latest selling came as investors grew unsettled by slowing economic growth in China and the growing costs of President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policies.
China's economy grew 6.5 percent from July to September, the slowest pace since early 2009. The world's second-largest economy was cooling even before the outbreak of a tariff war with Washington. That contrasts with the momentum of the U.S. economy. The government is expected to say Friday that the U.S. economy grew by 3.3 percent in the third quarter, after growing by 4.2 percent in the second quarter.
The strong U.S. economy has helped power earnings growth for companies in the S&P 500. While those companies are expected to deliver 21.9 percent earnings growth for the third quarter, investors are concerned about future growth amid rising inflation, interest rates and uncertainty over trade.
"That's the story, it's not the current quarter results, but the commentary going forward, the impact of tariffs and what that means in terms of costs," said Willie Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird. "If tariffs didn't come up in earnings calls and commentary, then maybe you could say we were moving away from that, but the opposite is happening."
The S&P 500 fell 7 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,748.
The Dow erased much of its early losses. It was down 62 points, or 0.3 percent, to 25,254. The average was down more than 540 points earlier.
The Nasdaq slid 10 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,457. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gave up 4 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,534. The index is now down for the year.
Bond prices rose, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury note down to 3.17 percent from 3.19 percent late Monday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index sank 3.1 percent. European markets also closed sharply lower.
Markets have been rattled in recent weeks by increased worries over the impact that rising interest rates, inflation and the escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China may have on Corporate America.
Trump has imposed tariffs on about $250 billion in Chinese imports, and Beijing has retaliated by targeting $110 billion in American products. Trump has threatened to tax another $267 billion in Chinese products, a move that would cover virtually everything China ships to America.
The two countries are locked in a dispute over U.S. allegations that China steals U.S. technology and forces U.S. companies to share trade secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market.
A big drop in oil prices weighed on energy stocks Tuesday.
Source: Netwealth Morning Business Roundup, US News
Wednesday Hump day brekkie is Corn and Carrot Fritters. Just finishing making your Coffee.
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