Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:The Australian share market...

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

The Australian share market has retreated for the seventh day in eight as the fallout from the government's proposed resources tax continued.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 29 points or 0.6% at 4756 on heavy selling in the metals & mining sector -2.3% and materials -2%.

Retail stocks were mixed after Clive Peeters became the third retailer in three days to lower its sales forecast. Shares in CPR dropped by 50% in intraday trade this morning after it followed Fantastic Holdings and Woolworths in warning of slowing sales.

Asian markets were mostly lower despite a positive lead from Wall Street. Shanghai fell 0.8% this morning and Singapore was off 0.9%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 0.12%. Japanese markets were closed. Dow futures were recently at -5.

Crude oil futures dipped 10 cents this morning to $85.90 a barrel. The spot gold price fell $2.80 at $1,179.40 an ounce.


Tough morning here - barely had time to throw this together, so apologies for the thin fare. Could be my first losing session in a few weeks. Profitable trades in FMG, ESG and AGO but currently underwater/break-even on buys in PBG, LNC, FMG again, ROL, BRM and SPT. Nasty.