A rebound rally fizzled this morning as slumping US equity futures offset news that the Chinese economy performed better than expected last month.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 17 points or 0.3% ahead at 5237, almost 40 points off its session high of 5276. Declines in energy -0.95% and financials -0.1% took the wind out of an early rally fuelled by gold stocks +3.4%, metals & mining +1.3% and the Small Ords +0.9%.
Souring US futures weighed on risk appetite after yesterday's heavy 2.3% slump on the local market. Dow futures were recently down 52 points or 0.28%, raising fears that last night's Wall Street recovery may have been temporary.
"To me, this highlights a distinct lack of confidence in the market, with people believing on balance that the pickup in volatility we have seen of late is far from over," Australian Stock Report head of research Chris Conway told Fairfax.
A 12pm round of upbeat Chinese economic data failed to arrest the decline. Industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investments for August all came in ahead of expectations. China's Shanghai Composite was unchanged, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 1.15% and Japan's Nikkei 0.02%.
Crude oil futures retraced 35 cents or 0.76% lower this morning to US$45.94 a barrel. Gold futures surged $9.20 or 0.7% to US$1,334.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.53 US cents.
As rallies go, there's not much conviction in this one. We're dancing to US futures, and they're as cheering as a funeral dirge. Boo. Trading: subsistence session after yesterday's plenty. Part-fills in D13 and FOD. Ho-hum.
