So the S&P/ASX 200 Index finally cracked today – but to the downside, falling below 4200 points for the first time in 20 trading days falling 71 points or 1.7% to 4181. The tight trading range has clearly been broken as the market continues to refuse to break free and go over 4300 points. A break of support at around 4160 would likely mean a return to the bottom of the monthly trading range at 4000 points:
Other Asian markets had relatively mild falls after yesterdays exuberance, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down only 0.2% to 9238, still above resistance at 9000 points whilst the volatile Hang Seng is currently down nearly 1% to 21186 with the Shanghai Composite also down 0.6% to 2352 points, coming back into its long term downtrend channel.
The AUD jumped on the ABS job numbers result, but has subsequently come back below 1.07 against the USD, now at 1.067, with the US Dollar Index breaking out above resistance (former support) at 79.6, now just below 80 points:
WTI crude has slipped around 0.4% to be at $101.37USD per barrel as Iranian tensions are maintained. Gold had a red day again, selling off by nearly $9 to $1719USD an ounce, whilst in AUD terms the shiny metal currently at $1610AUD an ounce.
Movers and Shakers
A sea of red across the board, with most of the pain in the materials sector, down over 2%, with only IT and Telecomms (i.e Telstra) down below 1% alongside REIT’s. Some big movers today due to earnings results – Brambles (BXB) lost nearly 4%, Forge Group (FGE) over 6%, Ludowici (LDW) up over 22% on takeover talks, Qantas (QAN) up 6% on sacking staff, and Graincorp (GNC) up over 4% on a doubling in profit. Phew.
Checking out the ASX8 (the top four banks and miners who collectively provided more than 90% of profit growth last year), it was a bath of blood for the banks, with ANZ losing over 2%, coming back to its 200 day moving average and breaking its short term uptrend on the daily charts, and remaining in a trading range on the weekly charts, with a bearish bias:
The big brother of banks, the Commonwealth (CBA) was the best, only down 0.7% and falling below its resistance level of $50 per share.
National Australia Bank (NAB) lost nearly 2% and is looking weaker by the day flat, whilst Westpac (WBC) lost over 3.5% – similar to its quarterly profit fall announcing earlier today and looking like heading back to support at $20 a share, breaking its January uptrend.
Quickly checking out Macquarie (MQG), the Millionaire Factory finished flat for the day, still below its long term moving average but slowly grinding it out.
To the holes, where BHP Billiton (BHP) finished deep in the red, down 2.2% – dragging the market – and seems stuck in a trading range with a potential bottom at $34 a share. Without a big rise in the Big Australian don’t count on the broader market moving anytime yet.
Its “twin” Rio Tinto (RIO), also continued its correction, down 2.3%, following iron ore and possibly heading back to support at $59 a share.
Gold miner Newcrest Mining (NCM) finished down 1.5% and remains just on trend, and to finish out the ASX8, Woodside Petroleum (WPL) was down 1%, still failing to gain traction and get above its long term downtrend.
The overnight futures for the ASX200 have slipped around 7 points to 4170 while other equity futures are down even further, pointing to 1 to 1.5% losses on the European bourses, with no significant data releases to go on, markets await further Greek ructions.