Thanks Brit and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
Australian shares eased for a second day after a strengthening greenback pressured commodity prices and April jobs data sprang no surprises.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was down 33 points or 0.6% at 5323 as traders rotated out of resource stocks after the US dollar surged overnight on indications that the Federal Reserve is more likely to raise rates next month than the market anticipated. The gold sector tumbled 6.6% from yesterday's three-year high. Metals & mining lost 4.4%, materials 2.8% and energy 2.3%, outweighing rises in IT +0.5% and financials +0.4%.
“The minutes showed that the policy makers’ desires to raise rates in June exceeded the market’s expectation for action,” Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management in Japan, told
Bloomberg. “The US economy is doing so well that the FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] can hike rates. But the global economy is on the decline and investors are not sure whether the Fed can really increase interest rates or not."
The market barely blinked after jobs figures showed the unemployment rate held steady at 5.7% last month as the economy added a net 10,800 jobs. A loss of 9300 full-time jobs was offset by a gain of 10,200 part-time jobs.
A mixed morning in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite advance 0.54%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng drop 0.35% and Japan's Nikkei near steady at -0.05%. Dow futures were recently off 26 points or 0.15%.
Crude oil futures slumped 65 cents or 1.35% this morning to US$47.54 a barrel. Gold futures were $15 or 1.2% weaker at US$1,259.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 72.21 US cents.
Bit of housekeeping: big weekend of hazard reductions coming up around Sydney (get those fish on the line
@64eheh). I'm on call to help tomorrow. (On an unrelated matter, if anything happens to the Three Sisters, I swear it wasn't me.)
@Keyser Soze, you available to launch the afternoon thread tomorrow (Fri) please? Trading: another good, busy morning. PIO offered loads of range. Also had wins in PLS, SMN, RMS and a nothing trade in IVR.
