Local shares retreated from yesterday's five-month closing high as falls in commodity prices weighed on resource stocks.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 23 points or 0.5% at 4668 as profit-taking dragged all sectors lower bar telecoms and and property trusts. Gold shares were hit hardest, falling 1.4%.
"We had a bit of a reversal of the theme of the week, which has been a weaker US dollar and higher commodity prices," IG Markets markets analyst Cameron Peacock told Fairfax. "We saw some stabilisation in the dollar last night and that led to a bit of a sell-off in commodity prices, and dragged down some of the major materials names and we're sort of seeing that playing out across our market today."
The dollar fell back after hitting a 28-year high at 99.18 U.S. cents overnight. The dollar was recently buying 98.08 U.S. cents.
Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.35%, Shanghai was up 1.75% as it re-opened after a four-day public holiday and Hong Kong's Hang Seng off 0.1%. Dow futures were recently at -2.
Key commodities continued to fall this morning. The spot gold price was $4.90 weaker at $1,329.70 an ounce. Crude oil futures eased another 13 cents to $81.24 a barrel.
A busy morning of swing trading here. Been in and out of JBH three times and KAS once. Holding RIV and OST from this morning's lows for any recovery this afternoon.
