daytrade diaries... august 25 part 2

Half-time round-up:

Regional markets retreated this morning as investors digested yesterday's heavy gains and a weak overnight lead from Wall St.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 24 points or 0.56% at 4401 as profit-takers caused a broad but modest sell-off. Wesfarmers was down nearly 10% at one stage after going ex-dividend on the day WOW announced its entry into the hardware market with a bid for DKS.

Shanghai slipped into reverse, losing 3.2% this morning. Japan's Nikkei index shed 0.78% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave back 1.57%. Dow futures were at -31 and following the slide in Shanghai. Crude oil futures eased back to $73.85 from $74.02 first thing this morning. Gold recovered nearly $5, recently hitting $945.30.

A slow morning here but not for lack of trying. I've been trade repellent all morning - let me know which share you want to rise, I'll place a buy order and watch the price spring away. It worked with BUY, AWB, ORI and ANN this morning. Managed to catch DLS on the retrace for a few points. Added MRM and IOF late yesterday after positive profit reports - took profits on the former this morning and the latter is slowly coming good.

Potential overnight holds: VPG is getting interesting. Reporting this morning and rising: APA, SEK, HST and OSH.