The share market held its ground near a three-week high as the domestic reporting season rumbled on and traders shrugged off soft construction data.
The ASX 200 was six points or 0.1% ahead at 5560 at the midway point of a tight, range-bound morning following yesterday's upswing. Declines in telecoms -3.3%, consumer staples -1.5% and gold -0.4% were narrowly outweighed by rises in metals & mining +0.9%, IT +0.9% and financials +0.8%.
This morning's sideways session followed slender gains on Wall Street overnight as US traders continued to ponder the likelihood of further rate rises this year.
“While recent US data has been mixed, the base case for the Fed is probably to increase rates in the absence of any compelling reason not to,” Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, told Bloomberg. “The Fed is aware that there’s a substantial risk that if economic conditions deteriorate, they have very little room to move. Given this, the central bank wants to normalise rates as soon as they can.”
The dollar barely reacted to news that construction work fell more than expected last quarter. Total building work declined 3.7% for the three months to June for an annualised decline of 10.6%. Economists had expected a drop of around 2%. The dollar was lately buying 76.08 US cents.
China's Shanghai Composite improved 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.82% and Japan's Nikkei put on 0.5%. Dow futures were recently off 27 points or 0.15%.
Crude oil futures skidded 45 cents or 0.94% this morning to US$47.65 a barrel. Gold futures were $4.60 or 0.34% softer at US$1,341.50 an ounce.
Sometimes hard to see the wood for the trees during profit season. So many movers, so little time to make sense of it all. General rule is to let the market tell you the worth of the result, then consider whether or not to enter. It's all about beating/missing expectations. Trading: an arm-wrestle for a while, but eventually came good in trades in A3D, CNX and GSC. Still holding AQI.
