* Financials drag down Aussie benchmark
* Draghi comments dampen sentiment
* Gold stocks buck trend
By Aby Jose Koilparambil
Dec 14 (Reuters) - Australian shares weakened on Friday, tracking losses in S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes on Wall Street overnight, as cautious optimism over U.S.-China trade relations petered out.
Global sentiment remained dampened after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi flagged "persistence of uncertainties" related to protectionism, emerging markets' vulnerability and market volatility, as the bank ended its crisis-fighting bond purchase programme. S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO slid 0.5 percent or 30.6 points to 5,631 by 0034 GMT, on track for its first fall in four sessions, with financial stocks pulling the benchmark down. The finance index .AXFJ dropped as much as 0.9 percent after rising for three straight sessions.
"Global economic and social worries continue. The market is pretty lacklustre this morning. Volumes and liquidity will continue to decline probably into next week and Christmas," said Damian Rooney, director of equity sales at Argonaut.
The trade war between the world's top two economies has remained the key risk fanning global growth worries over the past few months.
Australian shares have lost about 9 percent so far this quarter, on course for their steepest quarterly drop since the period ended Sept. 30, 2011.
For the week, Aussie shares are on track to post narrow gains, helped by positive talk from the U.S. and Chinese sides.
Australia's top four lenders - Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX , Westpac Banking Corp WBC.AX , Australia and New Zealand Banking Group ANZ.AX , and National Australia Bank NAB.AX - were trading in negative territory.
Media major Nine Entertainment NEC.AX was the top percentage loser on the benchmark, falling up to 10 percent to its lowest level in over a year.
Most of the prominent healthcare stocks also weakened, with index heavyweight CSL Ltd CSL.AX falling as much as 1.6 percent.
The metal and mining stock index .AXMM pared initial gains before reversing course and was trading 0.4 percent lower. Major miners BHP Group BHP.AX and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) RIO.AX fell as much as 0.3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
Gold stocks bucked the trend, putting as much as 0.8 percent to recover from losses in the last two sessions.
Newcrest Mining NCM.AX and Evolution Mining EVN.AX were among top gainers in the index for the yellow metal.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 fell 0.5 percent or 0.6 points to 8,743.57, its first slip after three sessions of uninterrupted gains, and was on course for a 0.3 percent fall for the week.