The share market reversed two days of gains before paring losses as Asian stocks avoided the worst of a sell-off on world markets in the wake of Europe's unpopular rescue plan for Cyprus.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 36 points or 0.7% weaker at 4953 after falling as low as 4942. A broad retreat saw all sectors decline except IT (+0.2%)and utilities (+0.1%). Notable falls included financials -0.7%, materials -1.2% and industrials and the Small Ordinaries, both down -0.5%.
"Equity markets have had a very strong run, reflecting the improved economic conditions and earnings, but those gains will need to be consolidated," Prasad Patkar, portfolio manager at Platypus Asset Management, told Bloomberg. "Cyprus was the catalyst for that consolidation to commence."
Falls in Asia markets were restrained, despite the deterioration in market sentiment in the US and Europe overnight. Shanghai dipped 0.42%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.28% and Japan's Nikkei 0.31%. Dow futures were recently up 18 points or more than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures rallied 18 cents this morning to US$94.71 a barrel. Spot gold firmed 80 cents to US$1,603.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0466.
Today's declines in Asia are minor relative to what we saw during the European debt scares of last year and the year before. Don't know if that's a sign of a complacent market or conviction that the market eventually overcomes all of these nervous euro-episodes. I caught AZY and AWC near their lows and took a small speculator in CBS when it neared the 50% retrace. House-keeping: I'll be absent tomorrow for a small op that will leave me walking like John Wayne for a couple of weeks but sounding like a soprano. Any volunteers to open the threads? Ay or Mitta would be excellent candidates to launch the morning thread. No pressure. All being well I'll be back on Thursday to gingerly resume normal service.
