Thanks Endless. Half-time round-up:Australian shares ended the...

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares ended the morning little changed after China's manufacturing output declined and a European summit broke up with no major breakthroughs on handling the debt crisis.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off one point or less than 0.1% at 4066 as falls among financials, small caps and defensive sectors were offset by rising resource stocks. The modest decline came as a summit of European leaders ended with claims of unity but no new initiatives to deal with the continent's debt crisis. Read more here.

"The market is right now confused and obviously worried about whether Greece will end up leaving the euro or not," Nader Naeimi, head of dynamic asset allocation at AMP Capital Investors told Bloomberg. "The market is pretty convinced Greece will leave at some stage, but the big difference is if their exit will be orderly or disorderly, and an orderly exit has already been priced into the market."

Asian markets were mixed after the latest manufacturing report suggested China's slowdown may be accelerating. HSBC's "flash" or preliminary manufacturing index declined from 49.3 in April to 48.7 this month. Read more here.

Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.29%, Shanghai rallied 0.12% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.34%. Dow futures were recently down four points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures clawed back another 21 cents this morning at US$90.69 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.10 stronger at US$1,561.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 97.68 US cents.


A low-volatility morning with limited opportunities and little enthusiasm for chasing prices higher. Neither Europe nor China have provided much of an impulse in either direction. I was in the sweet spot in PRR but too far down the buy queue to get an entry. MYR was another missed opportunity. Only one buy this morning - a bounce scalp in FAS.