Afternoon trading April 8

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Australian shares started the week with modest gains as strength in gold miners and tech stocks helped offset weakness among energy producers and supermarkets.

The ASX 200 overcame a first-hour wobble to reach the halfway mark 25 points or 0.32% ahead. An update trading update from Life360 boosted tech buying. Other stand-outs this morning included Qantas, gold miner Newmont and uranium miner Paladin. Drags included Woodside Energy, Coles and Macquarie Group.

Wall Street set the tone for today's advance with a positive end to a negative week. The S&P 500 bounced 1.11% on Friday as traders decided upbeat jobs data was market-positive, a reversal of the recent trend where strong economic reports have been poorly-received because of their implications for interest rate cuts.


Personal trading: Caught the initial bounce in BPT. Part-fill in HCH near the low. Half pips from BML and ADN. First dab at PEC.