The Australian sharemarket is pulling back after gaining yesterday with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) off by 0.5pct or 26.1pts to 4918.1. Worse than expected housing data out of the U.S paired with weak profit figures from investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS:us) are hurting the Aussie market. Goldman Sachs shares were off 4.689pct to US$166.49.

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The miners are lower off the back of weaker base metal prices from the London Metal Exchange (LME). Our second largest miner, RIO Tinto (RIO) is off 2.03pct or $1.79 to $85.82 and the largest, BHP Billiton (BHP) is 1.54pct or 71cents weaker to $45.35. BHP also released its quarterly production figures which ended mostly in line with expectations.

Iron ore producer, Fortescue Metals (FMG) is 6.4pct or 46cents weaker to $6.73 after Singapore's Temasek sold almost 130 million shares of FMG for $6.80 per share yesterday or $876.5 million worth. Temasek Holdings is an Asian investment house headquartered in Singapore which manages a portfolio of S$186 billion.

Clothing and adventure equipment retailer, Kathmandu (KMD) was up another 2pct in the first hour or so of trade however now is a little softer. This comes after a 16pct rise yesterday thanks to the New Zealand based retailer saying they are expecting a strong rise in sales over the next 6 months.

Telecommunications giant, Telstra Corporation (TLS), announced its new Chief Operations Officer will be Brendon Riley who was previously a senior executive with the world's largest chipmaker, International Business Machines, more commonly known as IBM. The current Chief Operations Officer, Michael Rocca is leaving the company after 43 years of service with TLS. TLS shares are currently flat.

Oil and gas producer, Santos (STO) is down 1.58pct or 22cents to $13.72 after announcing that production fell by 8pct over the 2010 calendar year however revenue increased by 2pct thanks to higher oil and gas prices.

Our 4 big banks are mixed with both Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and National Australia Bank (NAB) both slightly stronger, while Westpac (WBC) and ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) are trading a little lower.

On the economic front, China will release its monthly economic data today and detailed labour data will be released in Australia.

The Australian dollar (AUD) has fallen overnight and is currently buying 0.995 USD.

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