Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:Local shares bumped to a...

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Local shares bumped to a two-week low this morning as a weak overnight lead from Wall Street dragged on regional markets.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 50 points or 1.1% at 4429 as two of the big banks flirted with their 2010 closing lows and the big miners reversed most of yesterday's gains. The financial sector was down 1.5% and mining -1.2%. Gold and property trusts were the only sectors to buck the downtrend.

New Prime Minister Julia Gillard this morning pledged a swift end to negotiations with the mining industry over the government's proposed resources tax.

"My view is that this task needs to be undertaken as quickly as possible. We need to work through with good will, and we will," she told reporters in Canberra on her first full day as Prime Minister.

Flagging confidence in the global recovery has prompted a downgrade in the outlook for local shares, according to a quarterly poll of equity analysts. The median forecast of 15 analysts for the ASX 200 index is 5100 by the end of the year - well short of the 5450 forecast median in the last poll in March.

"The fiscal year is going to be underpinned by higher commodities prices, stronger global demand and an Australian economy which is going to be operating pretty close to normal," Craig James, chief equities economist at CommSec, told Fairfax websites.

Asian markets fell back. Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.45%, Shanghai was off 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.3%. Dow futures were recently at +25. The Aussie dollar softened against the major currencies, buying 0.865 U.S. cents, down 0.2%.

The spot gold price pushed back towards the overnight high, up $1.90 this morning to $1,245.30 an ounce. Crude oil futures edged 28 cents higher to $76.74 a barrel.


A very satisfying end to the week here, with today's drop offering some nice entries. KIK was a gift at 11 and I tracked ISF all the way down to 14 before taking the plunge. Also scalped a few points off ORE when it reached support. Yesterday's ELD buy has come good. Chance of another day or two in this bounce as some of the shorts cover, so still holding.