Thanks Brit and morning regulars. Half-time round-up: Australian...

Thanks Brit and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares slumped to a five-week low this morning after China stunned financial markets by devaluing its currency for a second straight day.  

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 46 points or 0.8% in the red at 5427 and at risk of its lowest close since June 29. An early rally gave way to the fifth day of selling in the last six sessions after the People’s Bank of China cut its currency reference rate by 1.6%. The central bank yesterday surprised the market by lowering the currency peg by 1.9%, the biggest cut in 21 years. Read more here.

The Australian dollar, which had risen briefly following news of unexpectedly robust consumer confidence data, fell roughly two-thirds of a cent to a six-year low, lately buying 72.61 US cents. The WBC-MI index of consumer sentiment rose to 99.5 this month from 92.2 in July.

The metals & mining sector plunged 3.7% as Rio Tinto traded without its dividend. The IT sector tanked 6.4% after a poorly-received earnings report from sector heavyweight CPU. Gold +0.8% and property trusts +0.4% were the best of the sectors. The financials sector was down 0.3%.

US equity futures dived in response to China's latest move in the so-called 'currency war'. Dow futures were recently down 106 points or 0.6%. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.79%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.47% and Japan's Nikkei 1.09%.

Crude oil futures retreated eight cents this morning to US$43 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.90 stronger at US$1,110.60 an ounce.


So much for China's currency devaluation being a 'one-off' move. Er, you may find you have a trust issue going forward, PBOC... Back home, it looks like traders knew about CBA's capital raise yesterday and got set then. Trading: scratchy morning. Fished half a wage out of two trades in HOR, got the other half from CM8 and then took a chance on a recovery in SFR. Lately back into CM8.