The share market has erased last week's gains following a poorly-received first-half profit from ANZ and further signs of a slowdown in China.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 41 points or 0.75% at 5448 as the market continued to retreat from Monday's five-and-a-half-year high. The financial sector lost 0.9% after ANZ announced a first-half profit just above consensus and a decline in bad debts to the lowest level since 2008.
The metals & mining sector slumped 1.3% after China's manufacturing sector grew slightly less than expected last month. The official Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 50.4, up from a March reading of 50.3 the 50.5 median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
"While the growth outlook has improved somewhat, the downward pressures remain, especially as financial risks have emerged amid the deleveraging process," ANZ's China economics team told Fairfax.
Most Asian markets were closed for May Day holidays. Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.54%. Emini Dow futures were recently up a point or less than 0.1%.
Spot gold retreated $2.60 this morning to US$1,288.90 an ounce. Crude oil futures were flat at US$99.66 a barrel. The dollar was buying 92.95 US cents.
What's a tenth of a percentage point between friends? Quite a lot when it comes to Chinese manufacturing, it appears. Near enough is not good enough, so down we go. Trading volumes have picked up, but I'm still scratching around for opportunities. Got something out of ELM and took IGO and BLD near their lows to try to keep the account balance ticking upwards.
