Shares have faltered for the first time in eight sessions following further declines in risk assets and a soft morning in Asia.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 12 points or 0.3% at 4482 as strength in industrials +0.9%, health +0.4% and telecoms +0.2% was swamped by weakness in gold stocks -2.4%, materials -0.7% and financials -0.2%.
The declines came as the dollar hit a three-month low and oil and gold both tipped lower. The dollar was recently buying $US1.0172. Crude oil futures sagged another 40 cents this morning to US$89.52 a barrel. Spot gold softened $12.40 to US$1,770.60 an ounce.
"I think it's a consequence of the fact that we've had quite a large run-up now," Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, told Fairfax. "I think we've just arrived at one of the sorts of levels where the market needs to see a bit more evidence of a medium- term outlook before it takes prices much beyond current levels."
Asian markets offered little impetus, with Japan closed for a public holiday and China and Hong Kong on the back foot. The Shanghai Composite eased 0.2% on its first trading day following a week-long break. The Hang Seng dropped 0.41%. Dow futures were recently down 13 points or 0.1%.
Job advertising continued its recent downward trend as declining commodity prices began to bite in the mining states. The ANZ job ads index declined 2.8% last month, following a 2.3% drop in August.
"Total advertisements have fallen for the past six months, and in more recent times this decline has been seen across all states," ANZ head of Australian Economics and Property Research Ivan Colhoun told Fairfax.
Clearly a "risk off" morning, with Shanghai disappointing expectations that it would play catch-up after a week-long break. Trading volumes on the XJO have been declining for two weeks, a clue that this latest up-leg did not have a great lot of momentum behind it. We could use a healthy pullback to return prices to more attractive levels. My problem this year hasn't been finding profitable trades - it's been finding enough profitable trades. Today has been typical - set around a dozen buy orders and got only one hit for a nice bounce in RSG.
