Afternoon trading March 26

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Australian shares hoovered just below a two-week high following a retreat on Wall Street overnight in the wake of last week's strong gains.

The ASX 200 dipped two points or 0.03% by mid-session as slender gains in resource stocks, supermarkets, utilities and some of the banks were outweighed by declines across the broader market.

In economic news, Australians grew more pessimistic about the economic outlook this month, partly reversing recent signs that the gloom was lifting. The Westpac Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index declined 1.8% to 84.4 from a two-year high of 86 in February.

"Last month we saw some promising signs that the consumer gloom that has dominated over the last two years might finally be starting to lift. The March survey update shows that progress continues to be slow at best. Consumers are still deeply pessimistic and becoming more concerned about the economy's near-term outlook," senior Westpac economist Matthew Hassan said.

Wall Street's main stock benchmarks lost between 0.27% and 0.41% overnight as investors booked profits following the market's best week so far this year.


Personal trading: Nice start to the session and then it all went quiet where I was fishing. Caught FID at the low. Needed two swings at BEZ, but cleared a profit. Also took DLI for a pip.