Shares were little changed at lunchtime as regional markets wallowed and U.S. futures eased.
At 1pm, the ASX 200 was off 1 point or 0.02% at 4765, as gains in industrials, telecoms, gold and energy stocks were countered by falls among the big miners and banks.
In morning economic news, consumer confidence rebounded this month but October retail sales were surprisingly weak leading into the Christmas shopping season. The WBC-MI consumer sentiment index rose 0.2% to 111 from 110.7 in November, following October's 5.3% slump. October retail sales dipped 1.1%, well short of analysts' expectation for a rise of 0.4%.
The competition watchdog has given a green light to the Singapore Stock Exchange's takeover of the ASX. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it will not oppose the $8.4 billion acquisition. However, there are several more regulatory hurdles to overcome before the plan can proceed.
The dollar eased this morning following a brief overnight flirtation with parity. The dollar hit 100.24 U.S. cents but was recently trading at 99.46 cents.
Japanese shares were little changed after a keenly-watched measure of business sentiment deteriorated but not as much as expected. The Nikkei was recently up 0.03%. Shanghai was down 0.18% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.26%. Dow futures were recently at -19.
Crude oil futures eased 22 cents this morning to $88.08 a barrel. Spot gold was off 50 cents at $1,395.50 an ounce.
Plenty of companies making hay while the sun shines - been a few years since I can recall this many IPOs and capital raisings so close together. I guess that's a healthy sign but you could probably construct some sort of contrarian 'sell' signal based on volume peaks in those events. Been a slow morning for this trader - just two bounce scalps completed in CTP and MEL.
