Australian stocks snubbed a positive overseas lead this morning and gave back yesterday's gains.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 35 points or 0.7% at 4863 after a broad sell-off left just one sector in positive territory - consumer discretionary at +0.2%. Defensive sectors were least affected - property trusts at -0.1%, health -0.2% and consumer staples -0.3%. The financial sector fell 0.8% and mining was down 0.9%.
RBS Morgans adviser Lisa Jarvis attributed the selling to profit-taking before the weekend after weak overnight US economic data.
"Weve had a good run up and the euphoria from yesterday has been tempered," Ms Jarvis told Fairfax.
Asian markets also slipped. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.21%, Shanghai 0.48% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.01%.
Dow futures were initially well ahead after Intel reported a strong profit result this morning but recently flipped over to trade recently at -7.
Crude oil futures slid a further 30 cents this morning to $78.97 a barrel. The spot gold price was $2 lower at $1,140.90 an ounce.
Been a nice end to the week here. Solid bounce trades in LLC and AZO. Lovely revenge trade in MML from 3.22 after an ugly run-in with it earlier this week. Potential reversal candle building there. Also caught the fleeting early run on COH. Mind you, doing the same thing on ADO would have been about five times as lucrative. If only I'd borrowed Tweety's balls of steel...
