Sydney, Aug 13, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares could be searching for direction this morning, with investors expected to tread cautiously as they consider the fallout from the US subprime mortgage crisis. Fears of a global credit squeeze, which triggered a sell-off in equity markets worldwide last week and prompted central banks to inject funds into money markets, will likely continue to rattle investor sentiment. Investors will also be keeping an eye on the Reserve Bank of Australia's statement on monetary policy.

On Friday, the ASX slid 3.7 per cent or 230 points ending at 5,936, its biggest one day percentage drop since September 2001. On the futures market the SPI200 is down 3.

Turning to currencies, the Australian dollar was up off a six-week low against the US currency this morning. At 8:40 AM the Aussie dollar is buying 84.61 US cents, on the crosses the dollar is buying 100.32 yen, 61.85 Euro cents, and 41.84 British pence

The full report is available at the following video and audio links.

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/19VUZFV7


Audio Link

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