Wet blanket. Tue Jan 11

The rains keep coming in Queensland and the floods are now affecting Northern New South Wales. It's the big dampener on the market and once more the index is below 4700 and flirting with support.

 The situation is not helped by European and North American markets which have been much stronger but are now showing signs of fatigue. The one European market that most nearly matches the Australian index is the beleagured French CAC 40.

I've been resisting the conclusion that the Asx 200 has made a lower high - and that wouldn't be confirmed unless the index fell below the November lows - but it looks like a trading range is well and truly in place.

I sold a few Aru on the open at 146.5 and that's most of the good news as my stocks are dropping in line with the index which is lower by 18 points. It's not the magnitude, more the grind. Telstra is the best of the bunch with a 3 cent rally to 281.

11.07 There's some resilience finally, with the index back to 4708, a drop of 4 points. Some early estimates of potential losses are coming through from the mining services companies and the sector is steady to mildly up so perhaps fears were exaggerated.
The shorter term Xjo charts are still showing signs of an attempt to turn with the 60 minute, below, having made a potential higher low which would be confirmed with trades through 4716. It could still struggle to make it though.

12.15 The local business channel has the Queensland floods on continuous loop with parts of central Brisbane on alert: it's not helping things and that attempt to rally has failed with selling once more gaining momentum.

1.43 Qantas is having a pullback but still looks fine. The strength is in safe havens with stocks like Djs, Mirvac, JB Hifi, Tls and Wow all among the leaders. The market is down 8 but having yet another attempt to bounce.

3.03 The index has battled its way to a 1 point rise, helped by some strength in Hong Kong.

I sold out of Awe at 174 on the open. It was a small position I'd bought at 178, hoping to be able to build it up on strength.

3.45 With the switch into defensives, some of my high beta resource stocks are more badly hit than the 4 point drop might suggest. I allowed for a small amount of overlap in Kagara Zinc but have now stopped out at 79.5.

4.13 A drop of 2 points was the final verdict for the Asx 200.

Telstra ran as high as 286 and closed at 284. There's no regulatory news but perhaps some jockeying ahead of any announcements. I'm hoping for a couple more days like this.