The share market continued to drift sideways this morning as gains in resource stocks were mostly offset by weakness in banks and consumer stocks.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was two points or less than 0.1% ahead at 5859 as the market marked time for the third session this week following a 140-point rally last week. The benchmark index has been stuck in a 40-point trading range since Monday. Rallies in metals & mining +2.3%, energy +1.1% and utilities +0.9% today were balanced by falls in telecoms -0.9%, consumer staples -0.8%, consumer discretionary -0.4% and financials -0.4%.
Wall Street ended modestly higher overnight as traders awaited fresh market catalysts. The S&P 500 added 0.06%. US jobs numbers are due on Friday and President Trump is due to meet Chinese President XI Jinping. Next week marks the start of another quarterly earnings season in the US.
"There's a lot of waiting until Friday. The payroll numbers and the meeting with China's Xi," Robert Phipps, director at Per Stirling Capital Management in the US, told Fairfax. "The elephant in the room is Washington. Right now its all about politics."
The mood was brighter in Asia, where China's Shanghai Composite resumed trade for the first time this week with a rise of 1.1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.24% and Japan's Nikkei 0.27%. Dow futures were recently down three points or 0.02%.
Crude oil futures rose 20 cents or 0.39% this morning to US$51.23 a barrel. Gold futures slid $2 or 0.16% to US$1,256.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.73 US cents.
Sluggish week of range trading at the top end, but plenty of movement further down the food chain, as is often the case. I haven't traded UNS for years, but sneaked a part-fill at 0.3c that quickly blew up into something worthwhile. Just a pity I couldn't get more at the low. Commiserations to long-term holders, though there have been plenty of red flags along the way. The company has been stumbling from disappointment to disappointment as long as I can remember.
