Australian shares gave back yesterday's gains as the miners led a retreat that left no sector unscathed.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 35 points or 0.7% weaker at 5340 after falls in commodity prices and jitters over Russia's incursion into the Crimea fuelled declines on Wall Street overnight. The market saw red across all sectors, with the sharpest falls coming in gold -3.2%, metals & mining -1.6%, I.T. -1.6%. and materials -1.4%.
"There's definitely the chance that things will escalate on the fact that the US has been speaking increasingly strongly about actions [against Russia]," Angus Gluskie, managing director at White Funds Management, told Bloomberg. "It's likely that the market will get nervous."
US futures shrugged off news that five banks failed Federal Reserve stress tests. Read more here. Dow futures were recently up 16 points or 0.1%.
Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.27%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.11% and Japan's Nikkei lost 1.21%.
Crude oil futures slipped four cents this morning to US$100.14 a barrel. Spot gold bounced $1.70 to US$1,304 an ounce. The dollar was buying 92.3 US cents.
Glum morning but no technical damage so far as the index is concerned. Possibility that a new downtrend is developing if the XJO closes below 5294 in the days ahead. Alternatively, we might be basing around these levels in preparation for a move higher. IPP gave a couple of trades this morning and then I moved on to the pokies. Not a conscious strategy. AGI just paid out. Waiting for ALL.
