Thanks Endless for the morning launch and thanks to everyone for...

Thanks Endless for the morning launch and thanks to everyone for the kind words and seasonal wishes this morning. A quick shout-out to Cgull - don't know what's going on, buddy, but hope to see you back soon. All the best to everyone out there for the festive season. See you in 2012.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares weakened for the third day in four as another retailer announced disappointing sales and Asian markets back-pedalled.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 42 points or 1% at 4096 with all sectors except telcoms +0.1% and IT +0.2% trading lower. Gold shares led the falls, giving back 2.2%, followed by industrials -1.8% and utilities -1.8%. Consumer discretionary stocks fell 1.6% after Kathmandu became the third retailer in a week to warn of soft Christmas sales.

Asian markets retreated for the first session in three as the unexpectedly large take-up of European Central Bank funding raised questions over the strength of Europe's banks. Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.41%, Shanghai 0.95% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.51%. Dow futures were recently down one point or less than 0.1%.

"The ECB doesn't seem to have stepped up to the plate for bond buying, which I think is negative, but at least they are acting as a lender of last resort for banks," Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors told Bloomberg. "As we are heading closer to a holiday period, volumes decline."

Crude oil futures rallied another 27 cents this morning to US$99.09 a barrel. Spot gold was $5.80 weaker at US$1,612.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0074.


I was overly bullish about the prospects for the day - not much holiday cheer or good will around the market this morning. Too many traders looking to close the books for the holiday. I used the bullish open to end my brief and expensive liaison with BBG. (If anyone gives me a surf shirt for Christmas, I'll punch them on the nose.) Then in the absence of more profitable ideas I scalped a few mid-caps hitting support levels - successfully in the case of ALL and TOL, less so with FLT so far.