Australian shares erased the week's gains this morning as global recession fears roiled regional markets and US futures.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 111 points or 2.6% at 4140 and on track for its lowest close since last Tuesday's remarkable 280-point reversal. Gold was the only sector to advance, rising 1.3% after the precious metal hit a new record price this morning. The rest of the market flashed red, with energy stocks off 3.5%, consumer discretionary stocks 3.5% and financials 2.8%.
"Our banking stocks have by and large taken the biggest hit on the open this morning," Patersons Securities associate director John Curtin told Fairfax. "Markets are falling heavily on the back of risk and the unknown exposures or what the actual end game's going to be especially for European banks with regards to the sovereign debt they hold."
Asian markets fared marginally better than Australia but still delivered substantial falls as US futures hinted at further falls tonight. Japan's Nikkei lost 2.15%, Shanghai 1.34% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 2.61%. Dow futures were recently down 76 points or 0.7%.
Gold continued its record run this morning. Gold for December delivery was recently up another $8.40 at US$1,836.90 an ounce. Crude oil futures fell another 31 cents to US$81.07 a barrel.
The dollar pared overnight losses of nearly two cents this morning, recently buying US$1.0369.
Not a good morning to deliver earnings. Impossible to tell if there's any value in there because pretty much any company that reported today has been walloped - ANZ, BBG, GFF, QBE, FMG, BLY... I normally do well on days like these but could have done a lot better. Didn't get on enough trades in the opening flurry and settled for modest profits in AFR, LNC, PEK and PRR. The sell-day pattern lately has been very simple: buy in the first 15 minutes and sell before the 11 am rot sets in.
