Australia's stock market has meandered to a small loss while miners and gold boost the bourse. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)Australia's stock market has meandered to a small loss while miners and gold boost the bourse. Fears of higher interest rates continued to weigh on the bourse after Wednesday's inflation surprise, dragging most rate-sensitive sectors into the red, while US threats of military intervention in Iran further dampened investor sentiment. "The overarching concern here is the outlook for interest rates and the potential for the Reserve Bank to lift rates next week," Moomoo market strategist Michael McCarthy told AAP. Consumer discretionary stocks were also under pressure, slipping 0.8 per cent as investors repriced for likely higher incoming borrowing costs.