Following negative leads the Australian share market has dropped 1.8 per cent at noon. After steep losses on Wall St and Moody’s downgrading Greece's credit rating fears over the state of global growth have pushed all sectors into the red, weighed down by financials.
The S&P/ASX200 index has fallen 86 points and is 4,621 at noon. On the futures market the SPI is 81 points lower.
Economic news: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has reported retail sales rose more than expected, jumping 1.1 per cent in April to $20.7 billion and rebounding from a 0.3 per cent revised decline the month before. The ABS has also reported that the country’s trade surplus narrowed. The balance of goods and services was lower than expected, a surplus of $1.6 billion in April, from $1.7 billion the month before.
Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES) has cautioned that wet weather at its Curragh metallurgical coal mine in Queensland will result in significantly higher cash costs per tonne. Last week the conglomerate downgraded its forecast production at the mine, now expected to reach between 5.1 million and 5.4 million tonnes in the 2011 financial year. Wesfarmers is targeting to return to full production from next month. Shares in Wesfarmers have fallen 1.69 per cent at noon and area trading at $32.57.
News Corporation (ASX:NWS) is reportedly struggling to sell its social networking site MySpace. According to the Australian Financial Review the media company has only two potential bidders to choose from, having dwindled from up to 20 parties in April. News Corp is believed to be targeting a price of $US100 million for MySpace after having acquired the site for $US580 million in 2005. Shares in News Corp have dropped 2.91 per cent at noon and are trading at $16.99.
Best and worst performers, all are trading in the red: The sector with the smallest losses is Telco Services, easing 1 point to 1,038. Shares in My Net Fone have gained 8.11 per cent and trading at $0.20 Shares in Big Air Group are higher while shares in Statatel are flat at noon. The worst performing sector is Financials Excluding Real Estate Investment Trusts falling 86 points to 4,254. Shares in National Australia Bank have dropped 5.14 per cent and trading at $24.73, the stock going ex-dividend today. Shares in Macquarie Bank and IOOF Holdings are also lower at noon.
New Zealand: The NZSX50 is 29 point lower. Taking a look at the top four stocks by turnover, Telecom Corporation of New Zealand is at the top of the list with stock down 1.64 per cent trading at $2.395 followed by Fletcher Building, ANZ and Westpac.
Gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $US1,541 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is buying $US1.0652 cents.
