Afternoon trading March 5

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Aussie shares hovered near record levels as a record close for gold and a rebound in iron ore boosted miners.

The ASX 200 reached mid-session five points or 0.06% ahead after trading both sides of break-even.

Mining stocks filled the top slots among the elite heavyweights of the ASX 20. Gold miner Newmont rallied 5.19% following the yellow metal's second straight record close overnight. A 1.14% recovery in Chinese iron ore prices this morning helped lift Fortescue Metals 2.92%, Rio Tinto 2.03% and BHP 1.42%.

The wider market struggled after consumer confidence fell to its lowest level of the year. The ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly confidence index declined 2.2 percentage points to 81.

Besides gold's closing record, a mixed bag of leads for today's session also included a surge in Bitcoin towards 2021 highs and modest falls on Wall Street. The S&P 500 faded to a loss of 0.12% during a low-key night in the US.


Personal trading: Pips from VYS and WHK off the lows. Exited VN8 from yesterday for brokerage when the price didn't budge.