Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Good to see Endless look in.
Half-time round-up:
The share market slumped towards its heaviest loss of the year after signs of a legislative roadblock in Congress triggered Wall Street's worst night in six months.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 81 points or 1.4% lower at 5693 after earlier touching a three-week low at 5691. The metals & mining sector led a broad sell-off, sliding 2%. Also weak: financials -1.9%, health -1.5% and energy -1.5%. Gold stocks, a traditional haven in times of market volatility, rallied 2%.
Overnight the S&P 500 slid 1.24%, its first loss greater than 1% since last October. US stocks hit reverse on signs President Trump may struggle to push his legislative plans through Congress.
"You have this back and forth in Congress with the new healthcare plan and you have this belief that if the healthcare plan can't pass, then they can't move on to taxes. There's this feeling that if things don't get done, then maybe what the market has been anticipating gets held up," Mark Kepner, managing director at Themis Trading, told Fairfax.
US futures remained mired in the red. Dow futures were recently down 46 points or 0.22%. S&P 500 futures were off 6.25 points or 0.27%. China's Shanghai Composite gave up 0.28%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.09% and Japan's Nikkei 1.9%.
Crude oil futures declined another 72 cents or 1.49% this morning to US$47.50 a barrel. Gold futures eased $2 or 0.16% to US$1,244.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.58 US cents.
This pullback is long overdue, so frankly I'm relieved we're getting on with it. A test of the 5600 level on the XJO seems a good possibility if last night proves more than a one-night wonder. At the least, we might see prices come back to more attractive levels. Trading: placed a heap of buy orders, but only got filled in BSR and IOT. Intraday stuff only in these conditions.
