Afternoon trading April 24

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Australian shares trimmed early gains after unexpectedly hot inflation data muddied the prospects for interest rate cuts this year.

The ASX 200 halved a pre-data rally of 41 points to 19 points or 0.25% at the halfway mark. Gains in gold miners, banks and tech stocks helped offset down-pressure from BHP, Rio Tinto, Telstra and Coles.

The index briefly gave up all of its gains in the 10 minutes following news that consumer prices increased by 1 per cent last quarter, up from growth of 0.6% the previous quarter and ahead of expectations for growth of 0.8%. The monthly annual CPI reading ticked up to 3.5% from 3.4% in February.

The dollar jumped 0.6%. The yield on 10-year Australian government bonds jumped 11 basis points.

"Bye bye, 2024 rate cuts," tweeted City Index market analyst David Scutt.

"For the RBA this warrants caution and makes late year rate cuts far less certain," tweeted the chief economist at IMF Investors, Alex Joiner.

The market's early strength followed a second night of gains on Wall Street and positive signals for tonight after Tesla beat analysts' earnings expectations. The S&P 500 gained 1.2% overnight. Futures for the index firmed 0.24% this morning as traders reacted to Tesla's trading update, released after the end of regular trade.


Personal trading: Tricky time of the month with all these quarterlies. Nothing a TA trader likes less than fundamentals mucking up the chart set-ups, lol. (Damn, you reality - won't you leave us to dream?) I struggled for trades and didn't find anything more lucrative than a dip in ADT to horizontal support for an entry.