Thanks Endless. Good to have you back, e-buddy.Half-time...

Thanks Endless. Good to have you back, e-buddy.

Half-time round-up:

Soft retail sales and construction data combined with a regional sell-off to push Australian shares to a three-week low this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 53 points or 1% lower at 5428 after earlier hitting its weakest point since April 16. A broad sell-off lowered all sectors, with the heaviest falls coming in IT -2%, metals & mining -1.3%, consumer staples -1.3% and financials -1.1%.

"Investors need to remain cautious," Matthew Sherwood, head of investment markets research at Perpetual, told Bloomberg. "They have decided to take some profits in the wake of recent upbeat sentiment."

The session began on a downbeat note following overnight losses on Wall Street and further deterioration in a measure of building activity. The AiG Performance of Construction Index declined 45.9 last month from 46.2 in March.

The consumer discretionary sector dropped 0.9% after March retail sales data missed expectations. Sales increased 0.1% compared to economists' prediction that growth would accelerate to 0.4%, following a 0.2% rise in February.

Asian markets retreated after services activity in China grew less than expected. HSBC's Services PMI slipped to 51.4 last month from 51.9 in March. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.59%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.06% and Japan's Nikkei 2.3%. Dow futures were recently off 13 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures advanced 15 cents this morning to US$100.06 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.10 stronger at US$1,311.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 93.42 US cents.


The ASX seemed a bit spooked by the falls in Asia this morning, but might recover now Shanghai is off its low. Never easy trading long when the market drops more than 60 points from the open. I got a profit out of a brief bounce in SFR. Hoped for something similar in PDZ and HGG, but both have stalled.