South African stocks opened in the red on Thursday in line with Asian bourses which were weaker in the wake of a fall on Wall Street on Wednesday.

At 09:15 the JSE all share index had weakened 0.41 percent, with resources down 0.50 percent and platinum counters giving up 0.42 percent, but gold miners edged up 0.15 percent.

Banks and financials were off 0.88 percent and 0.60 percent respectively and industrials eased 0.14 percent.

The rand was bid at 7.46 to the dollar from 7.36 just before the JSE closed on Wednesday. Gold was quoted at $1057.20 a troy ounce from $1060.30 just before the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1363 an ounce, from $1356.50 at its previous close.

"Markets opened down this morning on the back of world markets," a local trader said.

"US stocks ended lower and eastern markets followed suit this morning. We are moving in line with those markets. The rand may be lending some support to the market. I think the likes of Anglo and Billiton are holding up pretty well," he said.

The trader noted that for the rest of the day we were likely to eye world markets and take direction from there.

"US futures are slightly weaker at present. What ever happens now with the earning in the US we will take lead from there," he added.

Dow Jones Newswires reported that Wells Fargo led stocks lower on Wednesday after a bearish analyst note triggered a broad sell-off that took down JPMorgan and a host of other financials.

Overall, the DJIA closed down 92.12 points, or 0.92 percent, to 9949.36, marking its second decline in a row. JPMorgan and Bank of America were two of its weaker components, losing 1.38, or 3 percent, to 44.65, and 50 cents, or 2.9 percent, to 16.51, respectively.

Stocks had spent much of Wednesday's session in the green as Morgan Stanley and Yahoo posted third-quarter profits above Wall Street expectations. However, the market turned deep into the red late as Rochdale Securities' banking analyst Dick Bove cut his investment rating on Wells Fargo to sell from hold, saying the quality of its earnings was "pretty poor". Earlier in the session, Wells had traded slightly higher as the bank posted $3.2 billion in third-quarter profit. At close, however, Wells ended off 1.56, or 5.1 percent, to 28.90.

Joining Wells Fargo in trading lower were a number of consumer companies as the Federal Reserve's latest beige book showed weak consumer spending during late summer and early fall across most parts of the US Wal-Mart was particularly weak, off 1.07, or 2.1 percent, to 50.63, after unveiling a wave of price cuts for the Christmas shopping season.

The S&P 500 closed down 9.66, or 0.89 percent, to 1081.40, including a decline of 1.9 percent for financials and 1.5 percent for consumer discretionary companies.

The S&P 500 had pushed as high as 1101 on the session, repeating a recent trend of moving near 1100 only to fail to hold that level late.

"When we fail at that resistance level, you always see some liquidation," said Stephen Leuer, a floor trader at X-FA Trading.

The Nasdaq Composite outperformed the other broad indices, closing down 12.74, or 0.59 percent, to 2150.73. The index was helped by a gain of 49 cents, or 2.9 percent, to 17.66, for Yahoo (Nasdaq) after the Internet search engine company's third-quarter earnings more than tripled with the company reporting fewer charges.

Asian share markets are lower on Thursday after the bout of weakness on Wall Street, and are weighed further by data showing China's economy grew at a slightly slower than expected pace in the third quarter.

Japan's Nikkei ended down 0.6 percent and Hong Kong Hang Seng was last down 1.1 percent.

European bourses are likely to dip at the opening after the late sell- off on Wall Street, although underlying optimism remains even if a downward correction is overdue.