Half-time wrap:
Australian stocks fell for a second day as a pullback in iron ore overshadowed tech-driven records on Wall Street.
The ASX 200 declined 39 points or 0.5% by mid-session. The big three ore producers accounted for much of the weakness after a contraction in Chinese steel output helped drag ore prices down up to 3% in Singapore and China on Friday. Benchmark ore shed another 2.4% in China this morning.
The energy sector was another drag, falling 1.5% after crude prices pulled back further from Wednesday's two-month high. Precious metal miners bucked the downtrend.
The tech sector rallied 0.51% after record closes for Apple, Microsoft and Meta helped propel the Nasdaq up 0.9% during Friday's holiday-shortened session in the US. The S&P 500 put on 0.54%, also closing at a new peak.
Personal trading: Some serious retraces this morning. Took TTT and COV back at the retests of their breakouts. Watching AL3, NRZ, M2M and REZ. Also took OVT when it plunged significantly below the CR price.
On another note, Iress has had seven days to fix its charting issues and doesn't appear to have made any progress. None. Novels have been written in less time.
