Thanks Endless. Half-time round-up:Australian shares are on...

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares are on track for a fourth straight winning week despite losses this morning as US futures turned negative and Asian markets were mixed.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 12 points or 0.2% lower at 5507 but comfortably clear of last Friday's close at 5493. Falls in metals & mining -0.8%, financials -0.3% and telecoms -0.2% overshadowed gains in gold stocks +0.7%, I.T. +0.5% and utilities +0.3%.

Declines in mining stocks came on a day the Chairman of the Minerals Council of Australia Board warned that more resource companies will close as commodity prices retreat.

"The GFC didn't last long enough for a lot of the minerals, we didn't clean out the inefficient, bad operations that should have been shut down," Andrew Michelmore told a summit. "That is what we are paying the price for now around the world, as the pressure comes on those companies that should have been shut are now under pressure and may well shut." Read more here.

US futures slid this morning as Chinese shares fell for a second day. Dow futures were recently off 21 points or more than 0.1%. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.29%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.09% and Japan's Nikkei lost 0.55%, its first decline in seven sessions.

Crude oil futures eased 21 cents this morning to US$103.37 a barrel. Spot gold bounced $1.10 to US$1,258.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 93.17 US cents.


Markets in general seem to have deteriorated as the morning has worn on - Asia, commodities, US futures. It's a slow day here when the only trade I can find is in LYC. With the cap raising out the way, I caught the partial recovery for a day's wage. Still, these low-volatility conditions are not suiting my approach - worked out yesterday I've had five losing days in the last three weeks and that must be the highest loss:win ratio in years. I can't make a good living with that ratio. Here's to better times.