Afternoon trading August 2

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew. What a smash-up. Spectacular.

Half-time wrap:

The share market's record run came to a shuddering halt after soft US economic data triggered a sharp sell-off on Wall Street.

The ASX 200 reached the halfway mark 179 points or 2.2% in the red. Today's setback followed back-to-back record closes for the index.

Investors rushed to lock in profits near all-time highs after attention on Wall Street pivoted from the welcome promise of interest rate cuts to fears the Federal Reserve may have left it too late to start cutting. The S&P 500 dropped 1.37% following an unexpectedly sharp contraction in factory activity and a rise in jobless benefit claims.

All 11 ASX sectors flashed red, with more than half falling more than 2%.

Several uranium stocks copped a double-digit hiding after the world's biggest producer, Kazatomprom of Kazakhstan, raised its production guidance. The Global X Uranium ETF in the US plunged 7.73% overnight near to a nine-month low. Here, Deep Yellow slumped 16.54%, Paladin Energy 12.31% and Boss Energy 13.42%.


Personal trading: Not sure if I took advantage of the uranium sell-off or just offered myself as a bag-holder. I was expecting blood, just, you know, not that much blood. (Twice the average US blood loss in several cases.) I took BMN, DYL and DEV. Half-pip profit from DEV, woo-hoo. The other two seem to be suffering rigor mortis.