Thanks Endless. Half-time round-up:Australian shares drifted...

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares drifted lower this morning despite modest gains on key regional indexes.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was four points or 0.1% weaker at 4408 as falls in resource sectors and industrials outweighed modest gains in a handful of defensives. Trading volumes were low following modest gains on European markets overnight and a public holiday in the US.

"With the US market closed for that Thanksgiving holiday, there's not many leads out there to work off," IG Markets market strategist Stan Shamu told Fairfax. "Europe was firmer, but, basically, it was catch-up from yesterday's Asian session, so that really doesn't make too much of a difference for us locally."

Asian markets edged higher. Shanghai put on 0.27% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.16%. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a public holiday. Dow futures were recently up 33 points or nearly 0.3%.

Crude oil futures dipped another 23 cents this morning to US$86.89 a barrel. Spot gold was little changed, down 10 cents at US$1,729.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0386.


A ho-hum session, in keeping with expectations and my vegetal mental state after a good night out last night. In the absence of better ideas, I'm eyeing off a couple of Burnett specials: NFK has seen two days of heavy selling and may be nearing capitulation. Perhaps ANP at 1c. Purely day trades at this stage, both high risk. Might just be the hangover speaking.