Afternoon trading July 3

Thanks @just browsing, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Aussie shares pushed for their first gain in three sessions after Wall Street rang up fresh highs overnight.

The ASX 200 edged up 13 points or 0.17% during a low-key session ahead of a US public holiday tomorrow. Gains in resource, tech and property stocks helped offset minor losses among banks, industrials and consumer stocks.

The market briefly added to its gains after mid-morning reports on retail sales and building approvals both came in stronger than economists expected. Retail turnover increased 0.63% in May, boosted by early EOFY sales. Building approvals jumped 5.5%.

Overnight, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at records after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged progress on containing inflation, fuelling investor hopes of interest rate cuts. The S&P 500 put on 0.62%.


Personal trading: Still absorbing what a giant leap backwards the latest Iress charting "update" seems to be. The lag time when loading charts makes it almost unusable. Sometimes it just time outs. I'm mostly relying on my other software for charting info - at least it loads. Trading: bought retraces in TLG, TRS and FAL to no benefit as yet. Slow morning. US holiday throwing a brake on things. Stupid US holidays. Do some work, bludgers.