Thanks Brisen, Brit and morning crew. Half-time round-up:...

Thanks Brisen, Brit and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares slumped towards a sixth straight loss this morning as disappointing Chinese factory data weighed on regional markets and US equity futures.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was down 62 points or 1.2% at 5178 and threatening to close at the lowest level in almost a month. The sell-off lowered all sectors, with the biggest hits landing on financials -1.8%, gold -1.5%, telecoms -1.4% and consumer staples -1.3%.

The declines followed news yesterday that Chinese factory activity contracted during October for a third month. The official manufacturing PMI stalled at 49.8. The final version of Caixin's rival measure released this morning ticked up to 48.3 last month from 47.2 in September, indicating another month of contraction but above expectations for a reading of 47.6.

“I’m struggling to see catalysts to encourage the market to take this rally to the next level,” Tony Farnham, strategist at Patersons Securities, told Bloomberg. “China’s PMI numbers were underwhelming. Manufacturing will probably remain weak as China tries to rebalance its economy away from manufacturing and into services.”

China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.65%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.83% and Japan's Nikkei 1.72%. Dow futures were recently down 53 points or 0.3%.

Crude oil futures cents sagged 25 cents or 0.5% this morning to US$46.34 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.40 weaker at US$1,138.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.44 US cents.


World markets look really unimpressed by those Chinese figures - US futures, oil, Asia all down. XJO needs a partial recovery from this level to regain support. Trading: volatile morning with some pretty heavy hits to some recent market faves. I've been bounce trading lows in RFN, ZIP, RNI and NOR. Only one I've misread so far is GWA.