Afternoon trading December 8

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

Half-time wrap:

Aussie stocks overcame early weakness as an iron ore rally boosted the major bulk metal miners.

The ASX 200 swung from a 30-point mid-morning loss to a mid-session gain of one point or 0.01%. BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals spearheaded the recovery as China ore prices rallied 2.6%.

Woodside and Santos traded in opposite directions after acknowledging preliminary discussions about a possible merger. Woodside declined 1.07%. Santos jumped 6.81%.

The ASX tech sector shed 0.47% despite positive leads from Wall Street. The Nasdaq rallied 1.37% amid optimism over the outlook for artificial intelligence. The S&P 500 gained 0.8%.


Personal trading: Have we started yet? Sheesh. I got nothing. At this rate I'll be spending the afternoon house-painting. More productive.