Market wrap: a cautious night on global markets saw share indexes and resource prices retreat from recent highs. Financial stocks dragged Wall Street lower on fears about the results of government "stress-testing" of leading US banks. The major indexes pared losses near the close but finished down 0.5 - 1%.
The S&P Bank Index lost nearly 5.5%. Resource stocks also lost ground as the price of oil, gold and base metals slipped. Oil gave up nearly 3% in another choppy session to end near $51.25. Gold dropped through support and lost 3%, recently trading at $868, its lowest level since January. Base metals surrendered early gains to finish flat or lower.
Not surprisingly, our market is pointing to a lower open - the SPI lost 30 points at 3734. Rio Tinto and BHP were thumped in overseas trading so that figure would probably be worse if it wasn't for the prospect of a rate cut this afternoon. Things could get messy after 2.30 if the RBA holds fire.
I'm thinking it will be a good day for trading pullbacks on oversold shares, but there's no rush to buy. Good luck to all.
