Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: The share...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market stuttered towards its first weekly loss in a month as a tepid rally this morning was hamstrung by declining resource stocks and weak Chinese inflation data.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 11 points or 0.2% ahead for the day at 5446, roughly 20 points lower for the week. Resource stocks remained under pressure following a rash of analyst downgrades this week. The energy sector eased 0.1% after Credit Suisse lowered its expectations for STO, OSH  and ORG. The gold sector fell 2.1%, metals & mining 1.1% and materials 0.6%. Driving the rally were industrials +1.1%, health +0.7% and telecoms +0.6%.

Following on from yesterday's disappointing Chinese trade figures, September inflation figures this morning missed expectations. Consumer prices rose 1.3% year-on-year, versus expectations for a gain of 1.6%. Producer prices declined 0.8%, versus an anticipated 0.4% fall.

“The Chinese producer-price inflation number is really key for me now,” Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, told Bloomberg. "You are seeing a situation where the Chinese are exporting their deflation around the world. That could send emerging markets a little bit lower.”

China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.22%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.52% and Japan's Nikkei added 0.19%. Dow futures were recently up seven points or 0.04%.

Crude oil futures improved 16 cents or 0.32% this morning to US$50.60 a barrel. Gold futures were $2.60 or 0.18% firmer at US$1,259.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.96 US cents.


Market may now be adopting the view that bad Chinese data is good on balance for equities because it may delay/slow rate rises in the US. Certainly the ASX seems sanguine about it and US futures turned positive. Trading: LBT was a ripper. Also caught some of the rebound in ILU and got out of TAH from yesterday with a slim profit.