The S&P/ASX 200 suffered one of its worst days dropping over 105 points or nearly 2.5% to close just under 4600 points, after taking strong leads from the falls on Wall Street overnight. Asian markets were also heavily sold off, with the Nikkei down 1.6%, the Hang Seng down 1.7% and Singapore down 0.52%.
Other risk assets were mixed, with the AUD down strongly to 1.0634 against the USD, but gold up to $1542 USD an ounce. WTI crude is back below $100, at $99.443 USD per barrel.
Banks, Resources, everything
All sectors were hit, with the banks taking a lot of the damage. NAB fell over 6.2% – half of that its dividend, whilst the other three all recorded falls above or nearly 2% each. BHP was down over 2.2%, and RIO also falling 1.8%. Bluescope Steel suffered falling 4.4%, whilst Macquarie fell over 4%
There were no standouts – even the best industrials CSL and COH fell (1.5% and 3.6%),
Correction keeps correcting
The correction in the ASX200 since mid-April is on fire – having fallen 7.5% in a broad downtrend channel. It is still not at the lows experienced during the Japanese earthquake correction, but is approaching them fast.
Daily chart with correction shown in trend channel
Importantly, the weekly chart has failed its lower trendline channel. This has moved the point of control of the market down to 4500 points, with a swing target of 4200 points (and back up to 4800) likely for the coming weeks (excepting any QE from the Fed, or weakening AUD).
Weekly chart showing trend channel since May 2010 lows
The hourly chart for the last couple of days has been stark – and the reason your blogger has been busy.
Hourly chart showing the volatility of today's move