Thanks Endless. I'm still laughing at your perpetual motion post.
Half-time round-up:
The share market set a new four-week low before a recovery in financials helped pare index losses.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 10 points or 0.2% lower at 5319 after earlier falling as low as 5312. Gold was the pick of the sectors, rising 1,7%. The financials sector helped lead the turnaround, reaching break-even by 1pm.
The declines came as the White House rejected the legitimacy of a poll held overnight in which the Crimea voted to sever ties with Ukraine and rejoin Russia. The international community "will not recognise the results of a poll administered under threats of violence and intimidation from a Russian military intervention," a White House statement said.
"Investors are pretty nervous about the China story at the moment," Adrian Mowat, chief Asia and emerging-market strategist at JPMorgan Chase, told Bloomberg. "This adds to uncertainty. Throw in what’s going on with Crimea, I’d imagine it’s going to be a difficult week for markets."
Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.18%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.19% and Japan's Nikkei was off 0.21%. Emini Dow futures were recently down six points or less than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures rallied 19 cents this morning to US$99.08 a barrel. Spot gold was 80 cents firmer at US$1,382.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 90.21 US cents.
Not much evidence that the Crimean vote is causing mass panic on markets. That's because the outcome was as predictable as if Kim Jong-un or Robert Mugabe ran the vote. Back home, MEJ provided a lot of fun this morning. I managed a few pips on the way up and a few more on the way down when it respected the 50% fib retrace level. Friday's action in RFG and NMI encouraged me to take small speculators in each.
