Regional markets retreated this morning as rumours of a grim US jobs report tonight drove many investors to the sidelines.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 73 points or 1.7% at 4234 but still on track to finish modestly higher for the week despite all sectors losing ground this morning. Hardest hit were utilities -2.6%, health stocks -2.2% and consumer discretionary stocks -1.9%.
"There's talk - what they call the 'whisper number' - that we're perhaps going to get no jobs created at all, even potentially some jobs which have losses," IG Markets dealer Chris Weston told Fairfax. "I think the falls we saw overnight and the caution we're seeing in Asia is very much that people are anticipating a weak jobs number and also - given that data overnight was reasonably positive in the US - the chances of getting QE3 have diminished somewhat overnight."
Japan's Nikkei fell 1.11% in morning trade, Shanghai 0.93% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.05%. Despite the falls, Dow futures were recently off 51points or 0.4%.
Crude oil futures eased 7 cents this morning to US$88.66 a barrel. Spot gold was up 50 cents at US$1,828.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0701.
A steady grind lower this morning, making for difficult trading conditions unless you're short or momentum trading the specs. I caught recoveries in GPT, BDR and IDL. Less successful so far in CSR.
