Better-than-expected unemployment figures and rising US futures couldn't hold Australian share indexes in positive territory this morning.
At lunchtime, the ASX 200 was down 9 points or 0.25% at 3758 after briefly surpassing yesterday's high. The battered resources sector was much stronger than commodities overnight, with the energy, gold and mining sectors all advancing.
The official jobless rate hit 5.8% last month, the highest level since 2003, but under economists' consensus prediction of 5.9%.
US futures rallied this morning after Alcoa's quarterly report beat analysts' expectations, but faded a little in the last hour. Dow futures were recently +26. In Asia, the Nikkei was off 0.53% and the Hang Seng 0.84%. Crude oil futures rallied 30 cents to $60.56. Gold futures rose $2.30 to $911.
Hmm... the short-term outlook for the market looked promising at around 11.45am but the picture has blurred since then. Pity - was thinking about adding a couple of blue-chip overnight holds for the first time in a couple of weeks. Let's see how we finish this arvo.
Reasonable morning here. Caught IAU on the bounce for a solid profit. Squeezed a pygmy profit out of AGO - a reliable performer at this level this week. Also added IRE but it hasn't kicked on yet. ILU looks like it may be grinding out a saucer bottom (I hold).
