Thanks Endless. Half-time round-up:Australian stocks sagged to a...

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks sagged to a 10-day low this morning as a "risk-off" session pushed Asian markets into the red.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 14 points or 0.3% weaker at 4358 as losses among mining stocks, financials, industrials and small caps overwhelmed skinny gains in health, consumer staples and utilities. The retreat came as riots in Spain over austerity measures and a jump in Spanish bond yields raised questions over the government's chances of steering the country out of recession.

"What's happening in Europe has made investors nervous and they want to take risk off the table," Hans Kunnen, chief economist at St George Bank, told Fairfax. “News out of Europe was unsettling and doesn't provide a positive outlook. Investors reacted to that by selling off equities and selling off the Aussie dollar."

The dollar was lately trading at US$1.0368, down more than two-thirds of a cent since this time yesterday.

Asian markets fell back as more than 900 Japanese firms went ex-dividend and China's Foreign Minister re-asserted his country's right to islands also claimed by Japan. Shanghai lost 0.16%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.78% and Japan's Nikkei 1.71%. Dow futures were recently up 13 points or 0.1%.

Crude oil futures recovered 42 cents this morning to reach US$91.32 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.70 firmer at US$1,764.20 an ounce.


Better a decent blood-letting on the market than this tedious business of noodling 10-20 points lower every day. I was revved up to grab some over-solds in an opening plunge that never eventuated. Since then I've been trade repellant. Every time I placed a buy order, the price jagged higher before I got a fill. All except MEU and I can't feign much enthusiasm yet for how that has developed.