daytrades june 30 afternoon

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares slid to a five-week low this morning as regional markets continued yesterday's heavy sell-off.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 68 points or 1.6% at 4277, perilously close to the May 25 closing low of 4265 that has provided support for the last month. All sectors except utilities (+0.5%) were trading lower. Worst hit were metals & mining -2.2%, materials -2.2% and industrials -2.1%.

The index is on course for its worst quarterly result since 2008, down more than 12%. The latest global equities rout came as economic indicators in China and the U.S. flagged a slowdown in the global recovery.

"People's worst fears are starting to materialise - there simply isn't enough growth around to create jobs [in the U.S.]," IG Markets analyst Ben Potter said in a note quoted on The Australian website. "Jobs creation is still the one thing this recovery has lacked in the US."

In local economic news, sales of new homes slipped to a three-month low last month. Sales dropped by a seasonally-adjusted 6.4%, reversing a 6.2% rise the month before, the Housing Industry Association said today. However, housing finance expanded, helping to boost borrowing in May, the Reserve Bank said this morning. Total credit increased by 0.5% - topping expectations of a 0.3% rise.

Asian markets slid in early trade. Japan's Nikkei ended the morning session down 2.13%, Shanghai was recently off 1.67% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 1.04%. Dow futures were recently at +20.

The spot gold price edged 70 cents higher this morning to $1,241.50 an ounce. Crude oil futures were unchanged at $75.74 a barrel.


Hope shirts are still on backs out there - tough morning. There's still a chance our market will close above the old support. I didn't snag as many buys as I wanted at the open today but did well from scalps in ADX, BOL and SGM. IPL was less successful - underwater but was recovering until the bears planted an "Undisclosed" order in the sell queue - good to see the old scare tactics back in play. Geez, the ASX is determined to give the institutions every possible advantage over us little guys...