Across the region, Asian markets are all trading in negative territory, but off session lows after US retail sales missed expectations and the Federal Reserve Board cut its growth forecast. Reports from China showing growth had eased to 10.3% helped markets bounce a little. The Nikkei is the worst performer, down 1.1% while the Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Kospi are all weaker between 0.3% and 0.4%.

Domestically, the ASX 200 finished 0.4% lower at 4442.6, having traded as low as 4427 earlier. Shortly after noon, China's GDP data saw the market jump to a three-week high, only for it to fade in afternoon trade. There was no real theme to today's trade, with both defensive and cyclical sectors leading the way lower.

The impressive thing to come out of the Chinese data today was that the brakes are working. The government's effort to slow the economy and ease fears of 'overheating' has been successful, which should be seen as a positive. At the end of the day, China is the global growth engine. They're demonstrating that they have very good control of that engine.

Despite the jump higher on the back of the Chinese data, trade has been quiet and muted, with very little for traders to hang their hats on. Everything at the moment is centring on US leads and what happens with Q2 earnings reports. With very few leads overnight and some weaker economic data, it's hardly surprising to see our market putting in a 'wishy washy' performance.

Tonight's leads should give traders a little more to chew on tomorrow morning, with results from JPMorgan and Google expected, as well as US manufacturing numbers.

It was the typically defensive sectors that underperformed the most today, with the healthcare sector the biggest decliner. It fell 1.6% with CSL, Sigma Pharmaceuticals and and Sonic Healthcare down between 0.4% and 2.8%.

Sigma this morning provided figures to flesh out its announcement last month that it won't meet its FY11 budget targets. It forecasts a FY11 net profit of $43 million-$47 million after previously predicting a result similar to FY09, when net profit was $80.1 million. Sigma blames its poorly performing generics business and one-off corporate costs associated with a takeover bid from Aspen Pharmacare. Implications for the bid are unclear. Aspen said this month that for its 55c a share offer to proceed, there couldn't be a material decline in Sigma's position.

Consumer staple names also came under pressure with the likes of Wesfarmers, Goodman Fielder, Coca-Cola Amatil and Woolworths all down between 0.5% and 1.5%.

The materials sector was down 0.7%, with Fortescue Metals leading the retreat south. It fell 4.1% despite its Q4 production report coming in well ahead of most analysts expectations. Rather than focus on the positives, the market chose to focus on the higher-than-expected production costs, which were up 9.6% from the previous quarter.

Among other names Alumina, Rio Tinto, BHP, Lihir Gold and Newcrest Mining were all down between 0.7% and 2.3%.

In corporate news, Avoca Resources ran to a fresh record high of $2.96 this morning, before retreating to finish the session 5.3% stronger. The surge was fuelled by a massive upgrade to its gold resource inventory after the re-estimation of material acquired in the Dioro transaction earlier this year. This helped boost Avoca's total resource by 76% to 6.7 million ounces and cemented a strong production growth path. Avoca said 400,000 oz production is achievable in FY13, rising from a forecast of 280,000 oz this FY, and an actual 229,451 oz last FY, a 75% on-year surge. The output growth catapults Avoca into a league of global-scale producers, and will naturally have others running the ruler over this rapidly emerging major player. Following Avoca coming up trumps on the re-estimation of Dioro's resource base, it will now move to a full mine feasibility study on the HBJ Superpit. This pit is now regarded as one of the highest individually endowed gold deposits in Western Australian goldfields.

The financial sector detracted significant points too, falling 0.6%. Westfield Group lost 1.7% to be the biggest decliner, while the big four banks were all weaker between 0.3% and 1.2%, with NAB the worst. Tonight's report from JPMorgan should provide further leads for financials tomorrow.

On the upside, the big gainer was the industrial sector, rising 2.3%. Boral and Brambles were the standouts, adding 3.7% and 3.5% respectively while Transurban, Macquarie Airports and Leighton Holdings were all up more than 1.8%.

Ben Potter Research Analyst

IG Markets - CFD trading