Wall St halts market advance

The sharemarket closed in the red following a sell-off on Wall Street but resource stocks spared it from the losses suffered by Asian markets.
The S&P/ASX 200 finished down 35 points at 5329.5, well off the session low, where it was sporting a loss of 50.5 points.
Resource stocks were torn between following the rest of the market down and rising on stronger commodity prices.
EL & C Baillieu Stockbroking director Richard Morrow said the market was rattled by the sharp fall in Wall Street, where the Dow Jones closed 141.92 points lower at 11,500.73 on fears that the US Federal Reserve might not be about to cease lifting interest rates after all.
"We're doing better than the region," said Mr Morrow.
Japan's Nikkei Average dropped 1.5 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.4 per cent.
Metals such as aluminium, nickel and zinc made gains while the spot price of crude oil settled $US1.19 higher at $US73.32 a barrel in New York. The spot price of gold ended $US10.40 higher at $US720.70 an ounce in Sydney trade.
BHP Billiton finished 28¢ lower at $31.72 and Woodside Petroleum fell 37¢ to $47.20 but mining giant Rio Tinto gained 82¢ to $87.97.
Among the goldminers, Newmont fell 9¢ to $7.50 but Newcrest rose 16¢ to $24.80.
The leading financial stocks lost ground, with National Australia Bank falling 31¢ to $36.95, Commonwealth slipping 26¢ to $45.85 and Westpac losing 19¢ to $24.26.
Financial services group AMP dipped 5¢ to $9.71 while Macquarie Bank pulled back 24¢ to $70.37. ANZ bucked the trend, rising 15¢ to $28.53.
Media conglomerate News Corp's non-voting shares rose 11¢ to $23.81 and its voting scrip gained 9¢ to $25.15. But Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd shed 25¢ to $18.95 and Fairfax offloaded 8¢ to $3.90.
DCA Group was also a loser, plunging 72¢, or nearly 19 per cent, to $3.08 after it issued a profit warning.
Customer contact company Salmat also plummeted, closing down 54¢, or 12.3 per cent, at $3.85 after losing its catalogue distribution contract with Coles Myer.
Coles Myer rose 12¢ to $10.99 while rival supermarket group Woolworths fell 2¢ to $18.78.
Among other blue chips, Qantas descended 7¢ to $3.33 and Telstra fell 3¢ to $3.76.
The top traded stock by volume was Indian copper miner Aditya Birla, which made its ASX debut with 55.75 million shares changing hands for $186.40 million. It finished at $3.19 — up $1.24, or nearly 64 per cent, from the issue price of $1.95.
The dollar rose almost half a US cent, selling at US77.64¢ at 5pm compared with US77.18¢ on Thursday and US76.84¢ at the end of last week.
Analysts said it looked to be preparing for an assault on US78¢ under the influence of surging metals prices.