Australian Market Declines RTTNews Jun. 4, 2017, 08:59 PM (RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is declining on Monday despite the positive cues from Wall Street on Friday as investors turned cautious following the release of weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data and on lower crude oil prices. In late-morning trades, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is declining 44.40 points or 0.77 percent to 5,743.70, off a low of 5,742.10. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 38.80 points or 0.67 percent to 5,782.30. The major miners are mostly lower despite steady iron ore prices. BHP Billiton is losing almost 2 percent and Rio Tinto is down 0.5 percent, while Fortescue Metals is rising almost 1 percent. In the banking space, ANZ Banking, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are lower in a range of 1.6 percent to almost 2 percent. Oil stocks are also weak after crude oil prices fell Friday. Oil Search is declining more than 1 percent, Woodside Petroleum is down almost 1 percent and Santos is lower by 0.7 percent. Bucking the trend, gold miners are advancing after gold prices hit six-week highs on Friday. Newcrest Mining is rising almost 2 percent and Evolution Mining is higher by more than 3 percent after gold prices. Immuron said sales of the Travelan drug rose 13 percent for the ten months to April 30, 2017. The company's shares are gaining more than 7 percent. On the economic front, the latest survey from the Australian Industry Group showed that the service sector in Australia continued to expand in May, although at a slower rate, with a service PMI score of 51.5. That's down from 53.0 in April, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. In the currency market, the Australian dollar is back above the $0.74 mark on Monday. In early trades, the local unit was trading at US$0.7426, up from US$0.7390 on Friday. On Wall Street, stocks closed higher on Friday even though a report from the Labor Department showed much weaker than expected job growth in the month of May. The report said non-farm payroll employment rose by 138,000 jobs in May after climbing by a downwardly revised 174,000 jobs in April. While the Nasdaq advanced 58.97 points or 0.9 percent to 6,305.80, the Dow rose 62.11 points or 0.3 percent to 21,206.29 and the S&P 500 increased 9.01 points or 0.4 percent to 2,439.07. The major European markets also moved to the upside on Friday. The German DAX Index has jumped by 1.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged up by 0.1 percent. Crude oil futures fell further Friday, extending weekly losses amid industry figures showing U.S. drillers added rigs for the 20th week in a row. Crude for July delivery slid $0.70 or 1.5 percent to close at $47.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
%% Many like to buy on weakness; prefer to buy on uptrend strength, myself . Take$ all kinds to make a market..............................................................................................