Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:Shares are set to finish lower...

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Shares are set to finish lower for a third straight week as regional markets this morning ignored Wall Street's positive overnight lead.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 2 points or 0.05% at 4693 as falls in cyclical stocks overshadowed gain in defensives and industrials. Utilities topped the risers, up 0.7%, ahead of telecoms, property trusts and industrials, all up +0.6%. The big banks and BHP were trading in the red.

A slump in risk appetite was highlighted by the gulf between the performance of the small end of the market and the bigger end of town. The Small Ordinaries was down 0.8%, while the ASX MidCap 50 was up 0.2%.

"The market has become increasingly more cautious and investors are increasingly more uncertain about growth ex the resources sector," Shaw Stockbroking senior dealer Jamie Spiteri told Fairfax. "And even the resources sector at the moment is struggling to find support. There is hesitancy about China and the manner in which it's going to deal with inflation."

Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei declined 0.4% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.22%, but Shanghai recouped 0.4% of yesterday's loss. Dow futures were recently at -12.

Crude oil futures eased 20 cents this morning to US $98.73 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.90 weaker at US $1,503.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying US $1.0642.



Good to see a few specs running this morning because overall the small end of the market looks pretty poorly. I missed more opportunities than I took this morning. Particularly aggrieved about holding out for an extra cent of weakness in VLA during the mid-morn pullback. Sometimes it's more important to get on board than to get the best possible entry. BLY at the low would have been tasty. Scalped RHG in the opening volatility and grabbed a few ARD and some JBH. Mediocre day so far.