The market is down 57. ASX 200 Futures were down 22 this morning. The Dow Jones finished down 106, giving back all its previous days gains. The Dow was down 180 at worst in a volatile session.

Bonds rallied — US 10-year bond yield was down 5bpts to 2.12%.

Best sectors — financials, technology. Worst sectors — consumer staples, utilities, telecom. The VIX (Volatility Index) up 2.42%.

Germany’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.4% but was up by 21,000 in May, its largest jump since 2009. Germany’s CPI was +0.4% in May beating the forecast of +0.1% and rising from an annualised rate of +1.1% to +1.7%.

The IMF now expects the Chinese economy to grow by 7.75% in 2013, slower than the 8% forecast made earlier this year.

The OECD reduced their global growth forecasts from 3.4%t to 3.1% for 2013. Australian growth prospects were downgraded from 3.0% to 2.6% (below average) for 2013 and 3.25% in 2014.

European markets down — UK FTSE down 1.99%, Germany down 1.70%, France down 1.89%, Spain down 0.82%, Italy down 1.61%.

Metals mixed — copper down 0.81%, nickel down 0.41%, lead up 0.50% and aluminium up 0.63%. Spot iron ore was down $4.90 to $112.90.

  • Local Capex numbers disappoint: Business investment was down 4.7% in the first quarter missing the forecast of a 0.5% gain.
  • Dwelling approvals bounced back in April led by a surge in the “other dwellings” component. Total dwelling approvals were 13,774 in April  up from 12,630 in March. This is a positive for RBA’s rebalancing initiatives.
  • Iron ore price down 4% after a 2% fall yesterday. Iron ore stocks getting thumped. The iron ore price has held up reasonably well in the latest resources sell off but is now playing catch up – FMG -5.1%, RIO -1.7%, AGO is down 3.66% to 79c.
  • Elders (ELD) — Is up 20% after the ACCC gave the green light to a potential takeover by its rival Ruralco. ELD is up 20% to 12c.
  • ANZ’s $425 million share buyback makes it the third of the big banks to announce capital management in the last six months. This raises shareholder expectations that NAB will follow suit and announce a share buyback soon. NAB went ex-dividend today 93c. NAB is down 97c (3.18%) to 2958c.
  • Seven Group Holdings (SVW) — Don Voelte has been named as the new MD and CEO.  SVW is down 2.63% to 740c.
  • The Aussie dollar hit a 17-month low yesterday. Since April 11 the A$ is down from 105.85c against the US dollar to 95.28c at its most recent low. That a 10% fall in just over a month.
  • The Goldmans research yesterday suggesting you switch from Banks to Miners certainly seemed to get some traction with the bank sector down 1.4% (the CBA and Westpac both fell 2.5%) and the resources sector was up 2.5%.