Commodities soften, US fails to give a lead

The Australian sharemarket finished lower yesterday with the big miners leading the way down as metal prices fell.
The benchmark ASX200 dropped 39.8 points to 4861.4 while the All Ordinaries slipped 39.1 to 4830.8.
At the close of day trading on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index pulled back by three points to 4862, bang on the physical, on a volume of 21,443 contracts.
Macquarie Equities client adviser David Halliday said it was inevitable the market would struggle given the softer commodity prices and a weak lead from US markets.
"It was always going to be a tough day for the market to be up when commodity prices were down again overnight and, obviously, resource stocks are such a barometer for sentiment and the rest of the market," he said. "When they started down it was always going to be a day in the red."
The US markets provided a slack lead, with the major indices all falling on renewed fears of inflation and higher interest rates. In New York, the Standard & Poor's 500 index had given up 11.40 to finish at 1240.14, the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 72.44 to 10,942.11 and the Nasdaq Composite index shuffled back 19.53 points to close at 2110.42.
On the local bourse, the miners stepped back, with BHP Billiton losing 64c to $26.16 and Rio Tinto slipping $1.35 to $73.45.
Woodside Petroleum fell 97c to $40.95 after revising annual production targets down by 5 per cent.
Other oil stocks were mixed with Oil Search gaining 4c to $3.86 while Santos nudged 1c lower to $11.15. Beach was down 6.5c at $1.215 and Hardman down 7c at $1.53.
The big banks backtracked with the ANZ down 10c at $25.29, the Commonwealth down 60c to $41.40, National Australia Bank 69c to $33.33 and Westpac 4c to $21.85.
Other financial stocks lacked direction with Macquarie Bank steady at $65.05 and St George dropping 4c to $28.06.
Retailer OrotonGroup lost 12c to $1.64 after on Monday night flagging a fall in underlying earnings for the year amid tough trading conditions.
Furniture retailer Nick Scali also struggled, losing 20c to $1.25 following yesterday's warning of difficult trading conditions, forecasting similar profits to last year.
Coles Myer pulled back by 12c to $11.36. Woolworths picked up 5c to $18.72.
Media was mixed, with Fairfax dropping 4c to $3.65 and PBL 28c to $17.35. News Corp gained 18c to $27.05; its non-voting shares rose 5c to $25.50.
The spot price of gold shifted slightly higher, up US90c on yesterday's local close of $US571.80 an ounce.
The goldminers also retreated, with Newcrest dipping 47c to $18.80, Newmont losing 19c to $6.61 and Lihir Gold shedding 7c to close at $2.67.
Telstra shares gave up 5c to $3.64 and were the most traded stock on the market.
More than 46.0 million shares were traded worth a total of $168 million.
Market turnover reached 997.07 million, collectively worth $4.29 billion; 382 stocks rose, 716 fell and 312 unchanged.