Afternoon trading December 19

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1, @Patterns and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

The share market had a 10-month closing high in its sights as positive US leads helped keep the Santa Rally rolling.

The ASX 200 reached mid-session 47 points or 0.63% ahead at 7473. The Australian benchmark has not closed higher than 7442 since February.

Property trusts, gold miners and energy producers spearheaded a rally that lifted all sectors. Goodman Group, Aristocrat Leisure, Macquarie Group and Woodside Energy were the pick of the heavyweight gainers.

Wall Street laid the foundations for today's advance as investors shrugged off warnings from central bank officials that financial markets have jumped ahead of Federal Reserve thinking on rate cuts. The S&P 500 rallied 0.45%, closing one strong session from record levels.

Back home, the minutes from this month's RBA meeting showed the central bank debated raising the cash rate target but decided to wait for further data following "encouraging signs" that inflation was cooling.

"Members agreed that whether further tightening of monetary policy is required to ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe will depend on how the incoming data alter the economic outlook and the evolving assessment of risks," the minutes noted.

ANZ's weekly consumer confidence index rose to its highest in 10 months last week, albeit from extremely depressed levels. The index crept up one point to 81.8 points, still a long way off the 100-point level where optimism takes over from pessimism.


Personal trading: Took a profit on LRV from yesterday. Out of PCK for more or less brokerage. Half-pip from RFX. Wanted SYA at 6.1c, didn't get.