Half-time round-up:Rallies in energy and gold stocks failed to...

Half-time round-up:

Rallies in energy and gold stocks failed to keep Australian stock indexes in positive territory this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 14 points or 0.3% at 4729 after a weak lead from Wall Street. Gold stocks surged 2.8% this morning, ahead of energy, +0.6%, and telecoms +0.6%. Selling in property trusts (-0.8%), financials (-0.5%) and mining (-0.3%) weighed on the market.

Key Asian markets were lower. Japan's Nikkei slumped 1.41% and South Korea lost 0.7%. Hong Kong and China are closed for public holidays. Dow futures were mildly negative at -12. The spot gold price was little changed at $1006.10. Crude oil futures slipped nearly 40 cents to $69.94.

A slow but moderately profitable morning here after bounce trades in NBS (nice) and ADA (peanuts). Market seem sluggish?

Potential overnight holds: nice breakout on GGP. WHN seems to be breaking out of a pennant (a few of those around just now). UXC and ADU may be building reversal candles.