daytrade diaries... december 7 part 2

Half-time round-up:

Sliding resource stocks and mixed economic data drove Australian share indexes lower this morning for a second straight session.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 34 points or 0.74% at 4667 after heavy falls in the gold (-4.8%), metals & mining (-2.2%) and materials (-2%) sectors. Financial stocks were ahead in early trade but slipped into the red in the last hour, recently down 0.2%. Defensive sectors such as health (+1.1%) and telecoms (+0.5%) bucked the downtrend, pointing to a retreat to safety.

A bounce in newspaper jobs ads revealed this morning hinted at positive employment news later this week. The number of newspaper and web jobs ads rose 5.2% last month, reversing a 1.7% fall last month. The ANZ survey supports employment gains reported over the weekend by the Olivier recruitment group. Official labour force figures are due on Thursday.

But there was glum news for the construction industry, with a performance index indicating a slump last month after two months of growth. The Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association Performance of Construction Index shrank by 3.3 points to 47.6 points in November. The 50-point level separates expansion and contraction.

"The survey results reaffirm the fragile state of current conditions in the construction industry, which has slipped back from the tentative signs of recovery seen during the previous two months," said Australian Industry Group director, public policy, Peter Burns.

Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei gained 1.32% and Shanghai was up 0.3% but Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.49%. Dow futures were at -1.

The spot gold price continued to retreat this morning, down around $9 from Friday's close at $1,152.40 an ounce. Crude oil futures bounced off Friday's low, rising around 25 cents to $75.74 a barrel.