Afternoon trading July 17

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

A record high in gold helped precious metal miners fuel another up-leg in stocks as the local market hit a new record.

The ASX 200 rallied 78 points or 0.97% to 8077 by mid-session. The advance brought up a new intraday record at 8081.6 and set the index on track for its third record close in four sessions.

The gold sub-sector touched at its strongest level since November 2020 after the yellow metal broke new ground. Gold futures hit US$2,470.20 an ounce overnight, smashing the old top of US$2,454.20 set back in May.

Wall Street's record-breaking run continued with a new high for the Dow as investors continued to move money out of megacap tech companies into value stocks better positioned to benefit from rate cuts later this year. The Dow surged 1.85%. The broader S&P 500 gained 0.64%.


Personal trading: Too cautious after yesterday's third-degree burns. Wanted DGR a bit closer to the 50% fib retrace. Also waited too long for DRO. Had a buy order waiting in the mid $1.50s for that first bounce. Shoulda left it for the next down-leg. Didn't. Close, but no cigar.