MARKETS

Sellers got the upper hand in the post Federal Budget session on Wednesday. The weaker tone was primarily derived from big picture matters driving global markets at present, rather than a response to the budget. Some have associated the drop in the Aussie dollar in the last day to the larger than expected deficit in the budget.

Despite a stronger start to the session, the Australian market is slipping for the first time in six sessions. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.8 per cent or 44.1 pts to 5,158.4. Investors initially reacted to healthy gains from global sharemarkets overnight rather than Tuesday's federal budget, however the rise was short lived with most sectors turning negative about one hour into the session.

After a tragic construction disaster in Bangladesh, European retailers, including H&M and Wal-Mart, signed the Bangladesh safety accord which will introduce measures aimed at boosting safety conditions in garment factories, taking a step to securing lives of workers. Undeniably, unions had a big part in pushing the European retailers to take action in improving workplace safety at Bangladeshi garment facilities.

Guide:The Short Report draws upon data provided by the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) to highlight significant weekly and monthly moves in short positions registered on stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 123 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P gained 1.0% to 1650 and the Nasdaq added 0.

By Stephen Hogan, Senior Private Client Adviser, Equities/DerivativesAustralian MarketThe Australian market (XJO) closed down -29.

For a second day local stocks ended higher with a small yet unconvincing gain. Whilst the Federal Budget dominates the national media discussion at present, the reality is that the impact on prices will likely be modest if at all.

Will the state of federal finances have any effect on the battling Australian dollar? A Friday article by Fed mouthpiece John Hilsenrath in the Wall Street Journal floated the idea that the Fed is looking for ways to wind down its $85 billion per month in QE in a way that doesn’t crash stocks or disrupt order in the financial markets.

The restructuring spree of HSBC Holdings Plc is likely to continue as the European bank aims to improve its performance. It is widely speculated that HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver will inform about further downsizing and sales of some assets on the 15th of May. Investors expect to hear that a 3-year restructuring plan has started bearing fruits.

Australian shares are slightly firmer at lunchtime in the East, following a mixed offshore lead and ahead of the release of the Federal Budget in Canberra tonight.

By Alexander Green, Investment U Chief Investment StrategistIn Friday's column, I laid out what I believe is the greatest threat facing financial markets today: the propensity of national governments to tax, spend and regulate too much.

By Andrew NelsonThe spot uranium market crawled along last week, with a handful of trades and a fairly small amount of product changing hands.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 26 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P closed flat at 1633 and the Nasdaq was also as good as flat.

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, just added more money to her wealth. On Friday, she and another female billionaire were awarded $200 million after they won a lawsuit against Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO).

The Australian share market closed only slightly higher on Monday, despite strong gains offshore on Friday night which saw European markets reach five year highs and US markets close at record highs.

The Australian sharemarket is flat after a slightly weaker start this morning. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down by just 0.3pts to 5,190.8. A fall in the business conditions survey reading has been keeping stocks subdued. Last week however, the local market rose by around 1.68 per cent, making it three straight weeks of improvements.

SPX500 Forecast To Trade To Record PeaksBy David Rodriguez, Quantitative StrategistSPX500 ?Retail CFD speculators are now their most short the SPX500 contract on record, and we see little choice but to take a contrarian bias to crowd sentiment and calls for fresh SPX500 highs.

Guide: The FNArena database tabulates the views of eight major Australian and international stock brokers: BA-Merrill Lynch, CIMB, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Macquarie and UBS.

Friday's session largely boiled down to a tug of war between the resources and banks. As has been the case all week the miners won and financials underperformed. At face value Friday's performance appears underwhelming. The ASX200 finished with a gain of almost 8 points, having squandered an early lead of 44 points at its best levels which were seen in late morning trade. Investors appeared happy for some book squaring ahead of the weekend after the market gained 1.7% in the last 5 days.

The main talking point in the early part of Asian trade has been the sharp rally in the US dollar as the Wall Street day was winding down. Many unilluminating rationalisations for the move have been offered, most of them turning around the US Fed's mindset towards quantitative easing. The better reading overnight in relation to the number of US unemployed claiming benefits was seen as adding credence to this view.

What a strange world it is where global capital flees persecution by global central banks into the safety of the high priced Dow and the S&P500. Overnight, we saw another record high in the US indexes. As Dan Denning has been saying, we're in for a global melt-up in the big blue chips as capital seeks a refuge at the 'core' of the financial system.

A mood of prophecy, perhaps brought on by a large helping of osso bucco from our local Italian restaurant, came over us last night. We looked into the future. And there we saw a grim world.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 22 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P fell 0.4% to 1626 and the Nasdaq lost 0.

The Australian share market closed flat today, following subdued Chinese inflation data and volatile jobs numbers.

In the olden days - let's say back in the 13th century during the Mongol invasions of Europe - if you wanted to escape the Horde you retreated behind big thick city walls.

What about that Dow! Overnight, it punched through the 15,000 mark, on its way to 16,000, 17,000 and beyond. Could it happen? Well, markets are clearly in melt-up mode. But how far can they melt-up before the bust?

The Australian market has extended its gains following much better than forecast job numbers and an unsurprising inflation report in China. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.2 per cent or 11.7 pts to 5,189.6, making it the third day of improvements this week. There were 50,100 jobs added in April, 34,500 of which were full-time positions. The unemployment rate eased from 5.6 per cent to 5.5 per cent and the participation rate (the percentage of working-age Australians either employed or loo...

By Kathleen Brooks, Research Director UK EMEA, FOREX.comFX is playing second fiddle to stock markets today.

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) expects to benefit from the rising demand for steel by China with higher iron ore sales, a company executive said at an international conference in Singapore on Wednesday.