Afternoon trading March 1

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

The Australian share market flew to a record in early trade before paring its rise as gains in resource and tech companies were partly offset by declines in healthcare and consumer stocks.

The ASX 200 eclipsed its old high, set yesterday, by 34 points en route to a new record at 7737.8. However, sellers arrived before the first hour was out, paring the advance back to 23 points or 0.3% at mid-session.

Lithium miners continued to recover from multi-year lows following five straight days of gains in Chinese lithium carbonate futures. Core Lithium gained 9.52%, Arcadium Lithium 9.21% and Sayona Mining 5%.

Life360 spearheaded a strong morning for the tech sector, surging 37.93% after reporting a 33% increase in revenues.

This morning's rally followed a positive session on Wall Street as traders breathed a sigh of relief that the January inflation report was not as strong as some economists predicted. The S&P 500 lifted 0.52%. AI mania helped the Nasdaq advance 0.9% to its first record since 2021.


Personal trading: Placed plenty of lowball offers, but only fill was MGU.