Shares were unchanged at lunchtime after soft Christmas retail sales and a profit downgrade from Myer off-set positive signs for the jobs market.
At 1pm the ASX 200 was steady at 4863. resource, health, IT and consumer discretionary stocks were lower, while telecoms, banks and industrials inched higher.
Local retailers did not see much of a boost from Christmas, with December retail sales rising a mere 0.2% from the previous month. The consumer discretionary sector fell 1% this morning after a profit warning from Myer overshadowed a record first-half result from JB Hi-Fi.
"You've got a situation where consumers continue to be shackled by caution," St George chief economist Besa Deda told Fairfax. "You have consumers saying they are optimistic about their outlook but I suspect their appetite for spending has been affected by recent rises in rates by the RBA and the [lingering] effect of the global financial crisis."
There was better news in the jobs market, with job ads rising for a 12th consecutive month in January. ANZ data showed a rise of 2.4% in jobs advertised in newspapers and on the net.
"This suggests Australian labour demand remained reasonably solid in the latter months of 2010 in spite of some patchiness in a number of sectors of the economy," ANZ head of Australian Economics and Property Research Ivan Colhoun said in a statement quoted on Fairfax.
Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.67% this morning. Hong Kong's Hange Seng added 0.3%. Shanghai remained closed for Lunar New Year holidays. Dow futures were recently at -4.
Crude oil futures rallied 32 cents or 0.4% this morning to $89.35 a barrel. Spot gold eased $1 to $1,347.60 an ounce. The dollar was buying U.S. $1.0143.
Hard to trade a flat market - and they don't get much flatter than this morning's 10-point trading range. I picked up some AJM and AGV on pullback and placed a heap of other buy orders that have yet to be hit. Slow start to the week.
