Afternoon trading February 24

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Aussie shares pushed briefly back toward all-time highs before losing momentum.

At the halfway mark, the ASX 200 was ahead one points or 0.01% at 7644 as the final week of earnings season got underway. The index earlier drew within 16 points of its February 2 record high. Consumer stocks, gold miners and tech companies set the pace.

Suncorp, Lynas Rare Earths and Kogan rallied on earnings news. Alumina was boosted by a takeover offer from US partner Alcoa. A 0.9% advance in gold lifted the precious metals sub-sector 1.7%.

A rally in tech stocks continued despite a pause in the Nasdaq's record push. The Nasdaq Composite eased 0.28% on Friday as investors locked in some profits from Thursday's AI mania. The Dow and S&P 500 edged up 0.16% and 0.03%, respectively, to new closing peaks.


Personal trading: Busy morning. In and out of AXE on retrace. Sold HHR from Friday and re-entered. Caught the low in HMX.