Afternoon trading March 14

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

Half-time wrap:

The ASX 200 climbed out of correction territory as gains in iron ore and a record gold price lifted the major miners.

The Australian benchmark was up 23 points or 0.3% at the halfway mark. The advance was enough to trim the index's decline since its February peak to 9.8%.

Gold miners enjoyed substantial gains after the futures price for the yellow metal cracked US$3,000 an ounce for the first time. The Comex benchmark traded as high as US$3,003 this morning, according to MarketWatch.

Genesis Minerals led the charge of the Aussie goldies with a rise of 7.76%. Also on the charge: Bellevue Gold +5.31%, Westgold +4.92% and dual-listed Newmont +4.82%.

Reports of a short-covering rally in iron ore helped Fortescue gain 3.15%, BHP 1.88% and Rio Tinto 1.41%.

Today's rally flew in the face of further weakness on Wall Street overnight. The S&P 500 declined 1.39% into a technical correction. The Russell 2000 index of small caps and Dow Jones Transportation Index tested bear market territory.


Personal trading: Decent morning's work. Caught the rebound in GYG. Bought the opening range breakout in BKW. Took upward sloping triangles on the 5-minute chart in BRG and HUB. The latter didn't play out as hoped - wouldn't respect the triangle. Sheesh. Three out of four aint bad, as Meat Loaf might have sung if he'd considered more qualities.