Thanks Endless and fellow tick watchers. Half-time round-up:The...

Thanks Endless and fellow tick watchers.

Half-time round-up:

The share market continued its downbeat start to the year, easing for a sixth time in eight sessions as economic data came in mixed, and gains in resource stocks were swamped by falls in other sectors.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 11 points or 0.2% weaker at 5301, with gold stocks +5.4%, metals & mining +1% and materials +0.9% the best of the sectors. Notable declines included financials and energy, both falling 0.6%, and consumer discretionary -0.5%.

Job ads declined last month despite signs of a pick-up in select states. Nationally, the number of jobs advertised fell 0.7% from November for an annual decline of 9%. However, advertising increased in NSW, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

"Overall, labour demand appears to be stabilising or even improving modestly," ANZ head of Australian economics Justin Fabo told Fairfax. "A number of different measures of job ads [and] vacancies have been broadly flat since mid-2013. This is consistent with the unemployment rate remaining relatively stable at around 5.75 per cent in the near term, a level it has been at since mid-2013."

Home loans increased by 1.1% in November, in line with expectations. Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief economist Michael Blythe told Fairfax the ongoing improvement in property markets likely marked an end to this rate-cutting cycle.

China's Shanghai Composite bounced 0.41% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.36%. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a public holiday. Dow futures were recently off 20 points or more than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures dropped 20 cents this morning to US$92.69 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.60 firmer at US$1,250.20 an ounce. The dollar rose to 90.25 US cents.


Downbeat start to the week unless you're in goldies or nickel stocks. I thought the Indonesian news on the latter was well telegraphed, but obviously not - nice runs in IGO, WSA, etc. Friday was a thumper of a session for me but I struggled to find much this morning after NEN ran out of gas. Wasted a lot of time BUX watching without ever getting a 'Eureka' moment. Took ALL near round-number support to little effect and had another dabble in ACG.