Elephant in the ASX room

For the last week I have been careful not to mention the elephant in the room - the recent consecutive days of losses on the Australian stock market.

With the market yesterday having its worst one-day fall since 1989 which wiped around $1 billion off the value of local stocks, it appears that the elephant is a bull in musth.

Unpredictable, moody and violent.

But then markets are never thinking beasts. They react to fear, rumour and contagion rather than fact. Individuals and institutions looking only at perceived weakness rather than apparent strengths.

It seems the Australian stock market is determined to talk itself into further losses.