A solid night on US markets was not enough to keep our market in positive territory for the day. The Dow Jones put on just over 115 points and the S&P500 broke into new highs for the year and the highest it’s been since mid 2008. The Dow Jones Transport Index piled on 1.9% to just touch fresh highs for the year, now confirming the Dow Jones’ break a few sessions ago. Despite this, the Australian market floundered – the XJO closing 40.9 points or 0.8% lower. Selling was consistent all day from just after the open. CPI figures were released today which saw an increase of 1.6% for the March quarter and an annual inflation rate of 3.3%. This has sparked speculation of interest rate rises and sent the Australian Dollar higher – trading at 1.0808 at the time of writing. On the sector scoreboard selling was widespread and those suffering the most included the Gold, Materials and Metals/Mining sectors which were all more than 1.5% lower.