Thanks Endless. Forget to welcome you back yesterday - my apologies.
Half-time round-up:
Australian shares gave up early gains as housing data disappointed, Asian markets edged lower and Treasurer Wayne Swan admitted commodity exports have fallen faster than the government expected.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down two points or 0.1% at 4340 after earlier running as high as 4359. Declines in Rio Tinto and BHP were the biggest drags on the market, helping pull the metals & mining sector down 1.1%. Gold stocks fell 2.9%, materials 1% and energy 0.5%. Health +1.4% and utilities +0.9% were the pick during a morning when defensive sectors outperformed.
US futures deteriorated as Asian markets slipped. Japan's Nikkei gave up 0.28%, Shanghai 0.01% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.1%. Dow futures were recently off 19 points or more than 0.1%.
Hopes of a rebound in the housing market were dented by a sharp decline in sales of new homes last month. Sales fell 5.6% in July, breaking a run of three months of improvements.
"Consistently weak consumer - and business - confidence is weighing very heavily on new housing investment, far more so than is the case for retail expenditure," HIA chief economist Harley Dale told Fairfax. "Combine that low confidence with very tight credit conditions and excessive taxation, and you have the unpalatable recipe for the recessionary conditions facing new housing."
Treasurer Wayne Swan this morning reaffirmed Labor's commitment to achieving a budget surplus this financial year despite recent declines in commodity prices that prompted an analyst to suggest the government may need to find $10 billion worth of expenditure cuts.
"Yes commodity prices are down," Mr Swan told Fairfax. "In our budget we forecast for them to come down. If you take the spot market at the moment they are down more than we had forecast a little, but I think it's inaccurate to take a spot market forecast and then draw a conclusion from that on a yearly or six-monthly basis."
Crude oil futures retreated another 43 cents this morning to US$95.32 a barrel. Spot gold was $6.20 softer at US$1,659.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0353.
A mixed morning at this trading desk. Caught a nice bounce in NCM when it got overdone. Added a few AZH on pullback. Also AKK. Cut MGX loose at a hefty loss when it resumed its downtrend. Dumb buy.
