Thanks Suzie for standing in for Endless this morning. Endless, hope the op has gone well. Half-time round-up:
Australian shares are on track to complete their longest losing streak in five months as US futures signal a negative response to overnight events in Europe.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 59 points or 1.5% at 3984 and heading for a sixth straight loss for the first time since early June. All sectors were underwater, with financials falling 2.1% after retiring CBA chief Ralph Norris warned that credit markets are freezing up as they did during the 2008 financial crisis.
"We are likely to see investors continue to exercise caution in the market," Stan Shamu, a strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne, told Bloomberg. "There's a feeling Germany is no longer immune to this whole situation and they may act further, which is obviously why everyone is calling for common euro-bonds."
Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens last night called for European leaders to take urgent action to rein the sovereign debt crisis that has clouded the global economic outlook for the last two years. "We're fast coming to a point where parties who have to come up with a solution have to hurry up and do it," he told a Sydney audience last night, according to Fairfax.
Asian markets were mostly lower as US futures pointed to a weak start to tonight's reduced post-Thanksgiving trading session. Japan's Nikkei rallied 0.1% after consumer prices fell for the first time in four months, while Shanghai lost 0.12% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.12%. Dow futures were recently down 41 points or nearly 0.4%.
Crude oil futures eased 66 cents this morning to US$96.37 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.80 weaker at US$1,693 an ounce. The dollar was buying 96.89 US cents.
Our market has the blues again this morning, with the banks hit by credit market concerns and energy stocks under pressure following a poorly-received investor update from WPL. Been a week to forget for me - been making money on specs and giving it back on mid-caps. Better day today. Caught bounces in PEN and ANN and used the gap open on BBG to cut losses from yesterday. Still I'll be glad to see the weekend.
