A lacklustre week for the ASX looks set to end with a fourth loss in five sessions as overnight declines in key commodities weighed on miners.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 36 points or 0.6% weaker at 5749, more than 50 points below where the index closed last week. The week-long downward drift accelerated this morning after both iron ore and copper fell around 3% overnight, pulling the metals & mining sector down 2% and materials 1.8%. Also weak: health -1.1%, IT -1.1% and industrials -0.75%. The defensive gold and utilities sectors rallied 1.3% and 0.5%, respectively.
US stocks closed mixed for a second night. The Dow maintained its run of record closes (+0.17%), the S&P 500 scratched out a rise of 0.04% and the Nasdaq lost 0.43%. Stocks struggled for momentum after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin outlined the scale of the challenge to enact tax reforms by August.
"US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin's remarks on tax reform have served as a reminder of the scope of the task ahead of the US government in introducing major tax changes," CMC chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Fairfax. "Markets are reacting to the risk of delay in fiscal stimulus and unwinding some of the recent optimism that followed President Trump's phenomenal tax package remarks."
China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.17%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.25% and Japan's Nikkei 0.1%. Dow futures were recently off 14 points or 0.07%.
Crude oil futures dipped 10 cents or 0.18% this morning to US$54.35 a barrel. Gold futures retreated $1.60 or 0.14% to US$1,249.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.05 US cents.
The local market seems to have indigestion this week, following two weeks of big gulps. Once again we seem to be pre-empting a pullback in the US that hasn't happened. May find ourselves playing catch-up in another week or two if Wall Street maintains its appetite. Trading: dabbles in GGG and MGX, neither profitable yet.
