Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:Huge gains on overseas share...

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Huge gains on overseas share markets overnight and evidence of rising inflation in China left Australian equities largely unmoved this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 9 points or 0.2% at 4590 as losses in the mining and materials sectors tempered gains for financial and industrial stocks. The index never matched bullish futures traders' expectations ahead of the opening bell, touching a high of 4630 before falling away as caution crept in ahead of tonight's Federal Budget.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan this morning vowed to push ahead with a proposed mining "super tax" despite growing objections from Labor colleagues at State level. South Australian Treasurer Kevin Foley has joined West Australian Premier Colin Barnett and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh in criticising the plan. Mr Swan said talks with the mining industry were continuing.

The case for further central government intervention to cool China's booming economy strengthened this morning with evidence of quickening inflation and property price rises. Fears of a property bubble were heightened by another price surge last month. Prices in 70 cities jumped 12.8% in April from a year earlier, the fastest pace on record. Prices were up 1.4% from March, the quickest pace since December, when the increase was 1.5%.

Consumer prices were 2.8% higher last month than a year earlier, ahead of the consensus economists' expectation for a CPI gain of 2.7%. Industrial output rose less than expected at 17.8% year-on-year. Retail sales increased by 18.5% from a year earlier.

Stocks in Shanghai pushed 0.5% higher this morning but Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave back 0.78% as property stocks were sold off on fears of monetary tightening following the strong Chinese April data. Japan's Nikkei was little changed in morning trade at +0.08%. Dow futures were recently at -8.

Crude oil futures tracked sideways this morning, down 5 cents to $77.22 a barrel. The spot gold price was also little changed, down $1.20 or 0.1% at $1,201.40 an ounce.


After four days of extravagant profit opportunities, we were back to the usual crawl this morning. Most of the opening prices were too rich for my blood but I made a little on QAN and APA. Nothing since has really caught my eye. As others have noted, these massive swings overseas are not a sign of a healthy market and I remain cautious about overnight holds.