The share market hit a four-week low this morning before paring losses as US equity futures rallied and Chinese shares shrugged off Friday's regulatory tightening.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 53 points or 0.9% lower at 5824 after earlier falling as much as 70 points as part of a global flight from risk following Chinese initiatives to deflate a stock bubble and growing concerns about Greece's ability to avoid default. Gold (+0.1%) was the only sector to make any headway against the falling tide. I.T. -1.7%, industrials -1.4%, health -1.3%, financials -1% and materials -0.8% were among the biggest weights on the index.
US futures moved sharply higher as Chinese investors paid little heed to the regulator's latest attempts to cool the market. Dow futures were recently 62 points or 0.35% ahead. China's Shanghai Composite rallied 1.15%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave up 0.16% and Japan's Nikkei 0.08%.
Crude oil futures bounced 79 cents or 1.4% this morning to US$56.53 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.50 ahead at US$1,204.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 78.09 US cents.
Thanks for the thumbs/generous feedback this morning. Frustrating to see the index mired deep in the red and significantly under-performing regional peers. I hoped we'd see a proper recovery, given the state of US futures. Makes you wonder how much worse it would have been if Shanghai had crashed 6%? Trading: I turned up ready for a banquet of buying opportunities at the open and instead found a few stale sausage rolls and some limp lettuce. Caught part of the bounce in WIN, but should have done better. Doubled down on GPT near the low and got the lot away for a slim profit. Biggest mistake: watching the piece on the ABC news last night about medical marijuana trials in Queensland, thinking "Hmmm... ought to buy PYL tomorrow" then not buying PYL.
