Regional stocks lacked direction, pointing...>

STOCKS: Regional stocks lacked direction, pointing to exhaustion following the

slew of geopolitical headlines that have been apparent in recent sessions.

- The Nikkei 225 went into the lunch break virtually unchanged, albeit a little

lower as the industrial sector took the biggest hit, with materials not far

behind. At the other end of the spectrum the consumer staples sector

outperformed, with the health care sector also printing healthy gains.

- The Hang Seng added 0.1% with energy the clear outperformer on a sectoral

basis, while consumer discretionary names lagged, with traders seemingly

ignoring the USDHKD's test of the upper limit of its trading band. China's CSI

300 underperformed shedding 0.5%. - Australia's ASX 200 lost 0.3%, although some

of the large miners posted decent enough gains, with energy also edging higher.

The industrial sector weighed, with real-estate names also taking a notable hit.

- US index futures printed modest gains, with the e-mini S&P adding 5 points &

the mini Dow adding a little over 50 points.