Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
A profit miss from mining heavyweight Rio Tinto and sharp falls on Asian markets helped lower the ASX for a second day.
The benchmark index, the ASX 200, fell 13 points or 0.2% to 6263 by mid-session with resource stocks accounting for much of the down-pressure. A 3.7% slump in RIO contributed to declines of 1.8% in the metals & mining sector and 1.4% in materials. Rio's announcement that it plans to buy back $1 billion in shares was not enough to offset a smaller-than-expected first-half profit.
Read more here.
Asian markets found the negatives in a mixed close on Wall Street overnight. China's Shanghai Composite sagged 1.79%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.6% and Japan's Nikkei 0.4%. Overnight, the S&P 500 eased 0.1%, but the Nasdaq rebounded 0.46%. S&P 500 futures were recently off 0.5 points or 0.02%.
Back on the local market, IT stocks bounced 0.5% and there were gains for industrials +0.2%, consumer staples +0.5% and health +0.2%. Gold stocks lost 0.6%.
Crude oil futures rallied 28 cents or 0.41% this morning to US$67.94 a barrel. Gold futures improved 30 cents or 0.02% to US$1,227.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 73.92 US cents.
I'm slowly rejoining the land of the living after surviving the Seven Circles of Manflu (Dante wrote a book about it). Still too foggy to go in hard, but dipped my toe back into the market with a pip from LPD. Shoulda had a few more trades, but I'm dealing with the profound trauma of a minor sniffle and an itchy throat. I know your thoughts are with me in this time of great struggle. Sob.