Afternoon trading February 27

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

The share market lost ground for the first time in four sessions as soft leads from Wall Street were compounded by a four-month low in iron ore and a mixed bag of corporate earnings.

The ASX 200 dropped 10 points or 0.13% by mid-session as gains in consumer and energy stocks were out-muscled by falls across the wider market.

Coles, Wesfarmers and Woodside Energy were the best of the heavyweights. An overnight reversal in gold and a week-long slide in iron ore weighed on Newmont and the big three bulk metal miners.

US stocks stepped back from record levels overnight as treasury yields ticked higher ahead of Thursday's January inflation data. The S&P 500 reversed 0.38%.


Personal trading: Solid morning. Been playing around the edges of pullbacks. Trades in ARR, FFG, BTH and AXE. None for more than a pip or sometimes a half, but they add up. It's trickier than it used to be, thanks to the latest trading algos the instos are using to screw retail traders. Can't place a sell order these days without the algos loading the Sell queue with Chi-X orders that then jump the queue. It's a pain, but then the instos are always gaming the system to multiply their advantage over the little guy. HFT was worse while it lasted.